WASHINGTON — The great Arthur Laffer always tells us that when you tax something you get less of it, and when you tax something less you get more of it. That’s why President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs on medical technology produce less innovation and higher prices for patients.

Trump is at his best when he treats higher prices as the enemy. His historic tax cuts and regulations moved America in the right direction. So did his health care transparency rules and prescription drug reforms that let consumers buy drugs directly. When it comes to medical technology — the equipment that turned our hospitals into high-tech wonderlands — the administration’s principal policy has been a hefty tax in the form of tariffs.

That raises costs, especially in a healthcare sector where there is still far too little choice and competition. Those costs are passed on to patients either directly, through higher bills, or indirectly, through higher premiums or higher taxes that fund government health care programs.

The usual protectionist argument that domestic production can........

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