An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

by Elisabeth Rosenthal

In 2015 and 2016 California and Oregon enacted new laws allowing pharmacists to prescribe birth control pills, a cost-saving innovation. Since pap smears are only recommended once every three years, many women had to pay for a visit to the gynecologist merely to renew their regular contraceptive prescription. States could allow pharmacists far more leeway to dispense long-term medicines, such as asthma inhalers or thyroid pills. Medical society–backed “scope of practice” laws have long relegated these highly trained health professionals with Ph.D.s to counting out pills. States should allow us to take advantage of their knowledge and have three classes of medicines, as exist in much of Europe: over-the-counter, prescription, and pharmacist dispensed.