(C) Common Dreams
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Democrats Must Act on Prescription Drug Reform — And Voters Agree [1]

['Mckenzie Wilson', 'Bella Kumar', 'Timothy Bresnahan']

Date: 2022-06-29

By Marcela Mulholland and Carly Berke

The United States has some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world, a problem only getting worse as seniors struggle with rising costs. Tonight, Senate Democrats indicated they are moving forward with negotiating a deal on prescription drug pricing reform. On average, Americans pay four times more for prescription drugs than other countries. 18 million Americans can’t afford the medication they need. And for many seniors — a critical voting bloc Democrats will need to win this November — that problem is compounded: fixed income programs like Social Security have not kept up with rising prices and inflation, which can force seniors to take drastic and life-threatening measures like skipping medication doses, cutting pills, sharing insulin, and more.

Quite simply, prescription drug reform is one of the most effective and important issues Democrats can act on ahead of November — which is why Senator Schumer’s push should be both applauded and heeded by Democrats. It is also incredibly popular with the American electorate.

In a poll of national voters conducted between April 20th and 24th with Invest in America, we find that voters support negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs by a +75 point margin. Eighty three percent of national likely voters support giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. This included support from 86 percent of Democrats (a +81 point margin), 81 percent of Independents (a +74-point-margin), and, perhaps most critically, 81 percent of Republican voters (a +71-point-margin).

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[1] Url: https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2022/6/29/democrats-must-act-on-prescription-drug-reform-and-voters-agree

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