U.S. Prescription Drug Costs Are a Crime

President Donald Trump has complained that U.S. drug companies are "getting away with murder." For once the hyperbole is forgivable: It suggests he takes the problem of drug costs seriously and might be willing to do something about it. Unfortunately, his administration's efforts up to now suggest the opposite.

The White House has proposed tweaks to government health-care programs. Some of these measures are worth trying -- they could help at the margin -- but tweaks aren't enough. The underlying problem is drug prices that are indeed murderous: Americans and their insurers often pay many times what people in other developed countries pay for the same medicines. That's what policy needs to confront.