Prescription drugs, hospital visits, housing, higher education, and more have all become frighteningly more expensive, far outpacing Americans’ wages. But those kinds of price increases are ignored by the politicians who are now stridently decrying inflation.

A dollar or two or even a few dozen cents more for gas and consumer goods is nothing to scoff at and will eat away a good chunk of an ordinary person’s paycheck over time. But this is nothing compared to the extortionate prices Americans, and only Americans, are charged for life-preserving medication. According to the AARP, if those brand-name drug prices had gone up in line with inflation from 2006 to 2020, Americans would be paying on average nearly $3,700 less for drugs they used on a chronic basis — or more than $17,000 less total, if we’re talking about the average elderly person who’s on a regimen of more than four drugs a month. And while health insurance and Medicare might mean that many are shielded from the full brunt of these costs, they’ll still be feeling the sting in the form of higher premiums and other charges that pass these price increases on to them.

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