This week President Obama finally confronted a major U.S.
health-care disgrace—the growing shortages of lifesaving drugs,
especially anticancer therapies. For some reason the White House
lumped its executive order with its "we can't wait" campaign
against House Republicans, but the pity is that we will have to
wait, because the only genuine fix is a liberal anathema: market
prices.  Shortages have more than tripled since 2005, according
to the University of Utah's Drug Information Service, and by the
end of the year more than 300 products are likely to be back-
ordered, in short supply or totally unavailable. Some are
anesthetics and pain therapies, others emergency room "crash
cart" drugs. But most—about 70% in 2010—belong to the class of
drugs known as "sterile injectables" that are mainstays of the
chemotherapy arsenal, such as paclitaxel or cytarabine.  The
result is that more and more patients are receiving substandard
care—relying on less effective or more expensive substitutes or
else forced to postpone