Why Are Prescription Drugs So Costly in America? The Hidden Costs of Government Meddling and Foreign Price Controls

Prescription drugs in the United States are notoriously expensive—often the highest in the world. Take Trulicity: $67 in France, a shocking $798 here. President Trump and a cadre of senators have been busy offering patches to this gaping wound—policies to force drug companies to offer their lowest prices to U.S. customers or pass discounts directly to Medicare recipients. But these efforts—while laudable in intent—fail to strike at the root of the problem. Instead, they flirt dangerously with the same interventionist tools that have turned Europe’s cheap drugs into ticking time bombs of shortages and rationing. The Illusion of Cheap Drugs Abroad France, Canada, and Australia all deploy the same tactics: nationalized healthcare systems that dictate prices and control distribution. In…