Its perfectly fine for politicians to look at ways to keep prescription drugs affordable. But why does the bigger problem of soaring hospital bills get so little notice?

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data out this month show that retail prescription drug prices declined by 1.0 percent last year, to $335 billion, while spending for hospital-care services rose at about the same rate as in 2017, to $1.2 trillion.

And thats nothing new: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that drug prices have gone down for more months this year than theyve gone up, something the White House understandably celebrated.

Hospitals represent a third of total US health-care spending, drugs just a tenth. And a new analysis in the journal Health Affairs shows that over the past four years, hospital spending jumped 15.2 percent while retail prescription-drug spending rose just 5.7 percent, less than the overall Consumer Price Index.

One reason pharmaceutical prices get all the attention is that many more people see them: Insurance typically covers a far bigger part of a hospital bill. (And people just dont use hospitals as often as they buy drugs.)

Another reason: Hospitals and unions for their staff have vast political clout. Here in New York, health-care union 1199 is universally feared, while the Hospital Association of New York spreads campaign cash all over state government.

These angles may be why President Trump is almost alone in pushing on hospital costs. His recent executive order requiring them to publicly post their prices as well as the lower prices they agree to with insurers starting in 2021 is a landmark that has the industry screaming and suing.

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Hospitals, not drugs, are the big driver of health care costs - New York Post