As a former family physician, I know our health care system is deeply flawed. Patients struggle to afford needed treatments and medicine, and navigate the complex bureaucracy. At the same time, despite high overall spending, health care outcomes in the United States lag behind the rest of the developed world.

We need a better, more affordable health care system: One that prioritizes safe, effective care and treatment; puts the needs of patients first; and, importantly, is affordable and accessible for everyone who needs it.

This is easier said than done. The system is complex, with broad and complicated challenges, and we are somewhat limited by federal law in what we can do on the state level. But there are some real and noncontroversial steps we can take to build a better health care system in Maine.

One of these steps is to increase access to care provided by physician assistants.

Physician assistants have been providing medical care to patients in their professional role for the past 50 years. They must fulfill strict licensing requirements, in the same way as other medical professionals, and in Maine, physician assistants are licensed under the same medical boards as medical doctors or doctors of osteopathy. They receive rigorous training, and provide a high quality of care to their patients with similar clinical outcomes and patient experiences to physicians.

That’s why, last year I introduced LD 1660, “An Act To Improve Access to Physician Assistant Care.” This bill makes it easier for hospitals and large practice groups to hire physician assistants and brings the laws that govern them into line with current medical practice. It cuts red tape to allow more physician assistants to practice in Maine, thereby increasing access to the high-quality care they provide.

I’m proud to report that in February, the Legislature’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services committee voted unanimously to support LD 1660, which will soon head to the full Legislature for votes.

We are also considering a number of other steps to improve Maine’s health care system. Last year, Senate Democrats passed a suite of laws aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and this year we are building on that success with the Patients First reform package, which includes four new bills. The first, LD 2110, “An Act To Lower Health Care Costs,” introduced by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, seeks to establish the Maine Commission on Affordable Healthcare to monitor and investigate high medical costs and develop data-driven policy recommendations to lower those costs.

The next bill, LD 2096, “An Act To Save Lives by Capping the Out-of-pocket Cost of Certain Medications,” introduced by Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, caps the monthly out-of-pocket expenses for insulin at $100 for individuals covered by a plan regulated by the state. Speaker Gideon has another bill in the package as well, LD 2105, “An Act To Protect Consumers from Surprise Emergency Medical Bills,” which seeks to extend the law restricting surprise medical bills to cover emergency medical services. The final bill in the package is LD 2111, “An Act To Establish Patient Protections in Billing for Health Care,” from Sen. Ned Claxton, D-Auburn, which ends abusive billing practices.