An overwhelming majority of Americans favor government action to restrain prescription drug prices, according to a poll released Thursday.
Eighty-two percent of those polled said they want Medicare to negotiate prices with the companies, which Congress does not allow. Seventy-eight percent favored limiting the amount companies can charge for high-cost drugs, such as those that fight cancer or hepatitis, according to the poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And more than two-thirds want to let Americans buy drugs imported from Canada. Support is strong no matter the political party. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
The views come as the skyrocketing prices of some drugs are under intense scrutiny, with new evidence showing massive price hikes by some companies. Some members of Congress have called for investigations, but there is no consensus on how to effectively rein in the cost, particularly for lifesaving and unique treatments such as the EpiPen for people with deadly allergies and the hepatitis C-curing drug Sovaldi.
The poll found that while a majority of Americans still believed prescription drugs developed over the past two decades have improved lives, respect is dwindling. In 2008, 73 percent of Americans said the medicines had this positive effect, but that number dropped to 62 percent in August 2015. The new poll found that now 56 percent of Americans consider the drugs beneficial.
“Cost could be one reason why the share of Americans who say prescription drugs have made the lives of people in the U.S. better is declining,” the pollsters wrote.