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Nurse practitioners.
There is a clinic in my grocery store that staffs only nurse practitioners, and they can give checkups, as well as diagnose and prescribe medications for every common ailment. We also go to two doctors' offices where the default appointment is with the nurse practitioner, and you only get to see the primary care doctor if there's something strange wrong with you.
With less required schooling, they can get practicing in the field quicker, have less educational debt to have to pay off, and can carry minimal (perhaps even no?) malpractice insurance, all of which means better access and lower prices for sick people. I like the trend.
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