How Obamacare can be improved upon

Schansberg also points to the escalating cost of medicines and suggests loosening the noose of FDA regulations to ease the path of drugs to the market and reduce costs. The FDA might abandon its gatekeeper role and move to issuing the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal instead, so providers and consumers could make informed choices for themselves.

One way to compromise on the government’s “nanny state” tendencies and bureaucratic conservatism would be to allow “dual tracking”—where the government continues to regulate but allows informed choice until a final decision is made (Madden 2010). A better alternative would be for the FDA to allow private certifiers to regulate these markets. The FDA could then play the role of “certifier of certifiers,” rather than certifier of products (Miller 2000: 90). The FDA could allow certification, rather than treating its findings as a mandate for complete approval or disapproval. In other words, the FDA could merely provide information, instead of making a decision for those who might want to try a given drug.