AARP Hearing Center
In December 2025, AARP conducted research to understand how older Americans feel about prescription drug prices and the need to lower drug costs. The findings indicate that an overwhelming majority of older Americans want lawmakers to take the necessary steps to lower drug costs.
Nine in ten (91%) believe that reducing prescription drug prices and out-of-pocket costs should be a top priority for elected officials, while an even larger number (95%) think that Medicare should be allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies to lower the price of prescription medications, which Medicare can now do based on recent federal law. These findings hold across political party affiliation but are slightly higher for Democrats (96%, 97%) than Republicans (88%, 93%) and Independents (88%, 97%).
The survey also found that most older adults (83%) believe that Medicare’s drug price negotiations would have a meaningful impact on people like themselves. Democrats (89%) were slightly more likely to feel this way compared to Republicans (78%) and Independents (84%).
Methodology
Interviews were conducted December 11 to 16, 2025, among 1,075 U.S. adults age 50-plus in the Foresight 50+ Omnibus. Funded and operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, Foresight 50+ is a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population age 50 or older. Interviews were conducted online and via phone. All data are weighted by age, sex, education, race/ethnicity, region and AARP membership.
For more information, contact Bryan Miller at bmmiller@aarp.org. For media inquiries, contact External Relations at media@aarp.org.
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