76 Percent of Voters in Key Districts Support Giving Medicare the Power to Negotiate for Lower Drug Prices for All Americans
Washington, DC — A new PPP poll on behalf of Protect Our Care released today shows that voters in 10 key congressional districts whose representatives indicated in a recent letter that they may oppose the Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3) overwhelmingly support giving Medicare the power to lower prescription drug prices for all Americans, and they reject the argument that Medicare negotiation would slow down innovation.
The districts surveyed were: Cardenas (CA-29), Correa (CA-46), Peters (CA-52), Murphy (FL-07), Mrvan (IN-01), Auchincloss (MA-4), Gottheimer (NJ-05), Rice (NY-4), Schrader (OR-05), and Strickland (WA-10). In response to the poll’s findings, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“This poll confirms what we already know to be true: drug prices in this country are out of control, and Americans are demanding change. Voters across the political spectrum want Medicare to have the power to negotiate for lower prices and are willing to make their elected officials pay at the ballot box if they fail to act. Voters also overwhelmingly reject Pharma’s big lie that giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices will harm innovation.”
See the full PPP memo and toplines.
Key Findings:
- Voters of all political party affiliations agree that prescription drug prices are too high in this country: 88% of Democrats, 89% of independents, and 79% of Republicans think prices are too high.
- A majority of Republicans (54%) and almost three-quarters (73%) of independents support giving Medicare negotiating power to lower drug prices, along with nearly all (90%) of Democrats.
- Voters reject the argument that allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices would slow down innovation. Fewer than 1 in 10 voters support this argument. By a margin of 70% (77-7%), voters would rather “allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies” than are concerned that it will “undercut drug companies’ ability to innovate and develop new drugs.”
- Members of Congress risk losing support from voters of all political affiliations if they oppose allowing Medicare to have the power to negotiate for lower drug prices. A third (33%) of Republicans, almost half (45%) of independents, and 60% of Democrats say they would be less likely to vote for them.
- A large majority (71% of all voters and 72% of voters over the age of 65) strongly support making sure Americans do not pay more for the same prescription drugs than people pay in other countries.
- A further 70% of all voters and 75% of voters older than 65 strongly support using the savings from lower drug prices to provide hearing, dental, and vision coverage to people on Medicare as well as lower health insurance premiums for millions more.