Since he was first elected president, Donald Trump has been delivering a consistent message to Europe: the free ride is over.

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His administration has repeatedly pressed America’s NATO allies to meet their military spending commitments after decades of falling short, and many European nations have finally risen to the challenge.

Europe was largely skimping on its defense budgets, preferring to huddle under America’s security umbrella and invest the money in its welfare states. It’s now clear this freeloading can’t go on.

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But defense spending isn’t the only area where Europe has benefited at America’s expense. Prescription drugs are another. Now, our government is seeking to end another transatlantic disparity that has left American consumers footing the bill for cheaper medicines abroad.

Here’s how it’s been working: American companies invent and manufacture most of the world’s medicines, which European countries then slap price controls on. Forced to charge below-market rates in Europe, U.S. drug companies raise prices on Americans in order to recoup their investments and raise capital for the next round of innovation and invention.

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This is why Americans end up paying two to three times more than other developed nations for the very medications they produce. It’s unfair and the federal government is finally saying so.

At a breakfast meeting this month, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and health adviser Chris Klomp pressed German Ambassador Jens Hanefeld with a direct message: Germany must pay more for prescription drugs. If European countries pay market rates, then prices will come down for American consumers.

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Thanks to tough negotiating, this model is now in effect in Great Britain, and officials suggest that other countries, such as Japan and Switzerland, will be pressured next.

For decades, Washington accepted a system in which American patients financed the world’s pharmaceutical innovation while wealthy allies paid discounted rates.

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A global market only works if it is equitable and makes economic sense. The current prescription drug arrangement may have been politically convenient for Europe, but it distorted the market and transferred enormous costs onto American families, seniors, employers, and taxpayers.

Forcing Europeans to pay their fair share at a time of sharp inflation is an important way to bring relief to Americans’ pocketbooks.

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After World War II, Americans gave Western Europe a helping hand in a grand effort to prevent Soviet communism from gaining favor on the continent. Whether paying for Europe’s defense, which was decimated by the war, or affording their population lower prices on life-saving medicine, Americans quietly accepted an arrangement in which they carried a disproportionate share of the burden in the name of preserving the Western alliance.

This one-sided practice continued into the Cold War, which dominated my military career for a quarter century. As a NATO war planner during much of that period, I was keenly aware of Europe’s disparate dependence on the U.S. for its defense.

Today, the European Union sees itself as an economic powerhouse in its own right. That means Americans should no longer be expected to indefinitely subsidize an EU that is fully capable of paying its own way. What once made geopolitical sense now looks like a global rip-off.

Too often, Europe’s first instinct is to stick big daddy America with the bill. This unlimited line of credit has wrought other consequences too—like our sky-high national debt—and the time to shut it down is now.

Germany and other countries should take note: if Europe wants access to the benefits of cutting-edge American medicine, it must pay a larger share of the cost. It’s not fair to ask American consumers to pay the predominant cost of research and development.

Just as NATO allies need to contribute more to their own defense, foreign governments must stop balancing their healthcare systems on the backs of American consumers and taxpayers. Thankfully, our government is pushing hard for exactly that and must continue.

Colonel Terry Thompson is a retired Air Force officer and former economics professor. He’s written four books and is working on a fifth.

Image generated by ChatGPT.