Dec. 28—President Trump and Democrats in Congress agree: Prescription drugs are outrageously expensive, and government has a duty to try to drive them down.

But the pills Americans swallow are responsible for a mere fraction of the health care they get. The hard but necessary fact to face is that all other pieces of the medical-industrial complex, from insurance companies to hospitals to individual doctors, are together driving prices through the roof.

The latest report of the International Federation of Health Plans reveals just how much we sucker Americans pay for the same services provided throughout the industrialized world.

An MRI costs about $450 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it’s almost three times that. An angioplasty costs about $6,400 in the Netherlands. In the United States, it’s more than $32,000.

Bypass surgery here costs around $78,000, more than double what it is in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, or the U.K.. A C-section here costs $15,000; natural delivery of a baby, $11,000. An appendectomy, $15,000. Knee replacement, $30,000.

There are one or two exceptions, but the rule prevails: A country that boasts about having a robust private sector where people compete to improve quality, spark innovation and keep costs down is failing abysmally when it comes to health care.

The Affordable Care Act succeeded in extending access to care. On bending cost trend lines, it has patently failed.

Now, Gov. Cuomo is calling for more transparency on procedure pricing. That’s a welcome step; it’s also a baby step.

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