It's worth asking what healing in D&D should be for. In cRPGs, healing abilities are mostly about staying up in combat; healing between combats is pretty much a nonissue. In AD&D, it was mostly about healing between combats. This faded with 3rd edition (likely by accident) when item crafting rules turned out of combat healing into a fairly minor money sink and monster damage output was such that in combat healing was pretty pointless. 4th edition decided that they wanted healing to be mostly about in combat use, but heavily limited how much would actually be available. And then came 5th edition, which is best described as confused--healing word is basically stolen from 4th edition (including not having negative hit points), but in 4th edition you could only use it twice per combat.

I don't have this issue much in my games.  I think it's mostly due to my particular players just taking their characters falling in battle as seriously as the characters themselves would.  They always wanted to avoid it from the start.  If they encounter a new monster and it hits them for half their HP, they immediately start looking for a way out fast. Or at least a big change in tactics. 

But I also apply exhaustion on dropping to 0.  And that's 5e exhaustion.  This was more to add some sense of realism to the world rather than a reaction to anything they did.  I just wanted lasting injuries without anything complicated to track.  The exhaustion alone is enough to get that feeling across. 

I add another caveat too though.  The only way to remove the exhaustion is through magical healing and rest somewhere safe (enough long rests to remove all of the exhaustion.)  Once they have received enough magical healing to reach full HP, with long rests in a safe and calm location, then the injuries are gone.  This isn't something I track to the strict point value.  It's really something I just feel out.  Usually the party retreats to somewhere like an inn or a friendly NPC house and spend a day or so recuperating.  

The reasoning is that a short rest and hit dice can give you a second wind of sorts.  But it can't heal broken bones or serious cuts.  Magic can do that quickly.  If they don't get magic, it would take as long to heal naturally as the real world.  The basic assumption is that it's the last hit that did the real damage.  Once they were all worn out. The rest of the HP up to that point represented combat ability, stamina, luck, and minor sprains and bruises.

Since players have pretty easy access to magic, this delays them just enough to feel like a necessary break.  But it also makes the rest of the world feel more real.  Average people don't have magic.  They have to set broken bones and heal over months.  The aftermath of large battles have actual field tent hospitals full of injured soldiers.  There just isn't enough magic healing to get everyone back on their feet quick.  In these situations the PCs can even help the most seriously hurt with their magic.

That's all I've ever needed to make dropping feel like a big deal.  My players avoid it as much as they can.  But that might just be partially their own personalities and our particular games.  They are heroic, but not unbelievably so. 

I wonder, if the problem is that 5e doesn't track HP into the negatives, would an easy solution just be to start doing that?  For the tables that have a bigger problem with it.  Could you just start traking negative HP and make them take death saves until they are back to at least 0?  I haven't considered it before now.  It might be too deadly.  Or you might have to adjust it some.  Like 3 successful death saves stabilize the character.  But they still have to heal out of the negatives to wake up.  It might be worth looking deeper in. 

The issue with bringing healing closer to parity with DPR is that it will remove the tension from most encounters.  For better or worse, most creatures (even high level ones) don't have heavy damage options;  in video games and MMPORGS/RPGs, many enemies have attacks that remove significant chunks of PC health, and use them fairly often, so healing on closer parity to DPR/DPS is important to keep PCs standing.  Most D&D fights last 3 or fewer rounds, and even if a monster has a powerful attack, it is often limited use, so you might only get one use before the monster drops.  Most other enemies just use attrition fighting, with multiple hits of small damage, and in those fights, more powerful healing would just eliminate the challenge

For those that gripe about "healers" being boring in D&D should realize that there aren't really any "pure" healing classes and subclasses, and so a player will have lots of options to supplement their healing with other combat options.  Most healing classes come with opportunities to provide buffs, debuffs, and even attack options that should allow variety in play, so if the only options you choose are healing, it's kind of on you.

I am just spitballing here so forgive me if it's wildly out of balance or anything, but...

What if you combine Healing with Temporary Hitpoints, and with Hit Dice?

So, healing gets a buff, it does more. But, it instead gives temporary hitpoints.

As a bonus action, you can "recover", which allows you to roll a hit dice and add your con bonus, and move up to this amount of temporary HP into normal HP (minimum 2).

Life Clerics might get an ability that says "if a creature you can see takes a Recover action, you can choose to allow them to roll 2 hit dice and pick the highest" or something along those lines.

There would still be a market for spells which give a direct feed of HP, but giving larger temporary HP to a character and letting them absorb soe as a bonus action could make healing a little more effective?

Just spitballing, please feel free to pull it apart now!

Quote from _Amunsol_ >>

I've read plenty of stuff about possible fixes to yoyo healing (waiting for a player to drop to 0 HP then healing them back up for a turn only to have them downed again) as an optimal strategy.

There doesn't seem to be a clear consensus though and some say that its not really much of a problem to begin with. I'm hoping to get some feedback from people who have tried solutions and if there is any indication that One D&D may address the issue.

I've heard adding a level of exhaustion per time being brought to 0. I've heard not resetting death saves on being brought back up. I've heard simply playing monsters differently, making them attack downed PCs. I've heard of injury tables and negative health. What, if anything actually makes the game better?

 I have no problem with yoyo. Especially if you keep near to recommended number of encounters per day. But If I tired of smug yoyo I do and INT MONSTER Check.  Roll d20 if not greater than monster's intelligence. Double tap.