Though pharmaceutical CEOs lack the moral courage to say so, the drug price difference between the United States and Canada is simply price discrimination not unlike the thousands and thousands of other cases of price discrimination. In order to practice price discrimination, sellers must be able to separate markets to prevent arbitrage -- buying cheap and selling dear.

In the case of airlines, they must prevent adults from using children's tickets. In the case of drug companies, they must prevent re-importation either through contracts or law, then they can charge foreigners drug prices that only have to cover the incremental costs of manufacture and distribution.

Instead of making this argument, pharmaceutical CEOs have their lobbyists descend on Congress with the largely bogus argument about safety concerns related to Americans purchasing drugs from Canada. But given broad economic ignorance in Congress and among many Americans, talking about price discrimination might be hopeless.

If Congress enacts laws preventing price discrimination, both foreigners and Americans will lose because it will reduce the profitability of drug manufacture and hence drug development incentives. I ask you which is preferable: a life-saving drug at a high cost or no life-saving drug at all? Americans would be much better served by trying to do something about FDA's costly approval process.