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Whether it is buying a loaf of bread at the supermarket or hiring a roofing contractor, consumers expect to know the full price of what they are purchasing before they buy it. Transparency between buyer and seller on both the price and quality of the goods or services in a transaction is fundamental to our free-market economic system. In nearly every industry, individuals are able to shop for goods and services by comparing publicly available price and quality information. However, in health care, patients rarely know how much they will pay for medical services before receiving them. In contrast to the transparency found elsewhere, the opaque nature of health care pricing makes comparison shopping virtually impossible in most states. When the bills eventually arrive, they can be shocking. (Sen. Susan Collins, 9/22)

The White House announced a most favored nations executive order on Sunday, its latest attempt to lower prescription drug costs in the U.S. The new policy, which relies on international price competition, promises to provide Americans with “the same low prices” for prescription medications available in other countries. But the policy is founded on incorrect assumptions about how other countries would respond, where seniors’ high out-of-pocket costs really come from, and what it would mean for the U.S. to adopt cost-effectiveness standards used by foreign governments. (Susan Peschin, 9/16)

America's big drug companies are refusing to let President Donald Trump use them as campaign props. That is right and proper. First, nine of them pledged to not release a vaccine before one is deemed effective and safe. Having failed to manage or even acknowledge the COVID-19 crisis, Trump has turned to pushing the fantasy that an acceptable vaccine would appear by Nov. 3.Big Pharma said not before its time. The companies vowed to "stand with science," a point that has to be made nowadays. (Froma Harrop, 9/22)

Few industries have a harder time securing positive PR than America’s drug makers. So you should take with a heap of salt the recent report about how they took a moral stand against President Trump. According to the report in the New York Times the industry was on the verge of agreeing to reduce consumer drug costs by $150 billion until the Trump White House went a step too far. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/21)