Editorial Board
Want Cheaper Prescriptions? Start Bargaining.
With the right reforms, expanding drug-price negotiations can lower costs without impeding innovation.
At your service.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in a recent op-ed that there’s “no rational reason” why Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs — almost three times more than their peers overseas, according to a recent analysis.
One rational reason is that, until recently, the US was the only developed country that didn’t negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry. Lawmakers eager to lower Americans’ health-care costs should stay focused on getting those negotiations right.