2 days ago

Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices on behalf of older Americans remains broadly popular across partisans, though many voters are unaware of the new law and the billions of dollars it is expected to save in 2026, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds.

A large majority (85%) of voters say they support allowing the federal government to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs for people with Medicare. This includes at least three quarters of Republican (77%), independent (89%) and Democratic (92%) voters.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 authorized such negotiations, and the Biden administration recently completed the first round of negotiations on 10 drugs, resulting in an estimated $1.5 billion in lower out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries in 2026.

The poll shows that nearly two thirds (65%) of voters are unaware or unsure that there is a law allowing Medicare drug-price negotiations. The share (62%) is similar among older voters (ages 65+) who are generally covered by Medicare.

A large majority (75%) of voters also say they have not heard much about the savings resulting from the first round of price negotiations, including almost half (45%) who say they have heard “nothing at all.” 

One in four say they have heard “a lot” (4%) or “some” (21%) about the savings. Older voters are somewhat more likely to have heard either “a lot” (7%) or “some” (26%) about the savings.

Other findings include:

• Most (55%) voters ages 65 and older expect that Medicare drug-price negotiations will lower their own prescription costs, with 43% saying it will not have any impact. Older Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters are more likely than older Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters to expect savings (64% vs. 45%). 

• Minorities of voters are aware of other Medicare drug-price provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, including the $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin (40%) and limiting annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs (27%). Older voters are more likely than younger voters to know about both of these provisions. 
• While the Inflation Reduction Act was enacted under President Biden without any Republican support in Congress, partisans are divided on who deserves credit for the law’s Medicare drug price provisions. Substantial shares of GOP voters say that Republicans in Congress (54%) and President Trump (39%) had either a “major” or “minor” role in enacting those provisions. Larger shares of Democratic voters say that Democrats in Congress (80%), President Biden (81%), and Vice President Harris (69%) had a role. 
• Most voters say they would be in favor of extending Medicare’s $35 cap on monthly insulin costs (77%) and the $2,000 limit on out-of-pocket drug spending (69%) beyond people with Medicare, as Vice President Harris has proposed. Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independent voters support extending each of the two provisions. 
• Designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF, the survey was conducted August 26-Sept. 4, 2024, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 1,312 U.S. adults, including 1,084 registered voters, in English and in Spanish. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points for the full sample and among registered voters. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.