Poll: Bipartisan majorities support curbing drug costs, opinion on ACA unchanged
DENVER — The August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, which was released Thursday, found that bipartisan majorities of the public are in favor of lowering the costs of prescription drugs, and that opinions of the Affordable Care Act remain "largely unchanged."
About half of Americans (54%) are currently taking a prescription drug, with 72% saying their prescriptions are very or somewhat easy to afford, and about a quarter (24%) saying that paying for their drugs is difficult, according to the poll.
At least seven in 10 support each of these four potential policy changes, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports:
86% support requiring drug companies to release information on how they set prices, an idea proposed in legislatures in several states, including majorities of Democrats (90%), Republicans (82%) and independents (84%);
83% support allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies to lower prices for people with Medicare, including majorities of Democrats (93%), Republicans (74%) and independents (83%);
76% support limiting how much drug companies can charge for high-cost drugs for illnesses such as hepatitis or cancer, including majorities of Democrats (79%), Republicans (70%) and independents (77%); and
72% support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs imported from Canada, including majorities of Democrats (69%), Republicans (75%) and independents (76%).
The poll also evaluated the perception of pharmaceutical companies, compared to other industries. Among the public, 42% hold a favorable view of pharmaceutical companies, similar to the shareholding a favorable view of oil companies (40%) and health insurers (44%), but smaller than the share saying so about doctors (78%), food manufacturers (58%), banks (58%) and airlines (55%), the Kaiser Family Foundation said.
The August poll also revealed the following findings about the public’s opinions of the ACA:
On the ACA overall, the poll finds the public remains closely divided, with 44% reporting a favorable view of the law and 41% reporting an unfavorable view, statistically unchanged from recent months. As in the past, most Democrats hold a favorable view (76%), most Republicans an unfavorable one (71%) and independents are more evenly split (46% unfavorable, 39% favorable);
Opinion about what Congress should do next when it comes to the law also has been fairly constant over time. Equal shares (28%) say that they want Congress to expand what the law does and that they want a complete repeal of the law, with the remainder falling in between by saying either they want Congress to continue implementing the law as it is (22%) or scale it back (12%); and
Those who want Congress to repeal the law in its entirety are split about what should happen next: 12% of the public overall say they think Congress should replace the law with a Republican-sponsored alternative, while 11% say they would like the law repealed and not replaced.
For more results, click here.