Ha. We knew this headline would grab your attention.

Every news story and every declaration by the political class shouts out exactly the opposite: Americans pay MORE for drugs. But that’s highly misleading. It IS true that Americans pay more for new drugs under patent. That, of course, is because American pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars inventing the major breakthrough drugs and the rest of the world free-rides on those R&D costs.

But most drugs consumed in the U.S. are generics. Those prices are cheap. And generics last forever, whereas a patent lasts 10 to 20 years before generics take over.

A new blockbuster study by UP senior fellow Tomas Philipson has two amazing findings:

First: “The U.S. has the highest generic market share (93 percent).”

Second: “The U.S. has some of the LOWEST generic prices among developed countries.” Medicare and Medicaid pay almost 20% less for prescription drugs than in Europe, Canada, and the U.K. It is true Americans pay more for the patented drugs, but many residents of countries with socialized medicine don’t have access to these drugs at virtually any price because of socialist price controls and government-run health care.