&gt; assumes a rational actor model which doesn&#x27;t model what people actually do<p>Sure, but in the case of drug prices in countries with national health systems we don&#x27;t really have any reason to think that the model doesn&#x27;t reflect reality.<p>&gt; the deadweight loss in your evaluation can instead be interpreted<p>Yes, this is exactly my point! The science of economics makes no judgement about the relative moral values at play here. That may very well be a tradeoff people want to make. Or it might not. Economics doesn&#x27;t comment on that question one way or another, it nearly provides data on the practical outcome of the decision.