Prescription Drugs
Medicare Price Negotiation of Prescription Drugs - A National Poll: February 12, 2007
Research Report
Curt Davies, AARP Knowledge Management
William E. Wright, AARP Knowledge Management
February 2007
Opinions about whether or not Medicare should be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies are measured in this national AARP telephone poll of Americans age 18 and older.
Of those surveyed...
- 87 percent support a proposal to allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers (65% strongly support, 22% somewhat support)
- 61 percent think allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices should be a top or high priority for Congress while 36 percent say it should be a medium or low priority
- 85 percent think the costs of prescription drugs are too high; 10 percent feel the price is just about right and 6 percent are not sure
Support for allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices spans party lines to include 85 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Independents. Similarly, 72 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents favor Congress making the issue a top priority. At the same time, 87 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Independents feel drug prices are too high.
The telephone poll of 1,000 age 18+ adults was conducted for AARP by Woelfel Research Associates, Inc. between January 26th and February 8th, 2007. Further information about this study may be obtained by contacting Curt Davies of AARP Knowledge Management/Strategic Issues Research at 202-434-6295. (13 pages)