Most Americans Support Legalizing Prescription Drug Reimportation, Allowing Federal Government to Negotiate Prices, Survey Says

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 20 Apr 2005 - 10:00 PDT


Seventy-seven percent of US residents support allowing reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and the same percentage also believe Medicare should be permitted to negotiate lower medication prices with drug companies, according to a new... Kaiser Health Poll Report, Bloomberg News reports (Hallam, Bloomberg News, 4/18). According to the survey, in each case, 79% of respondents say the change would have a lot or some impact in reducing prescription drug costs in the United States (Kaiser Health Poll Report, 4/19). The survey also shows about one-quarter of residents believe that legalizing prescription drug reimportation would harm safety and reduce revenue drug companies use for research and development efforts. The survey includes responses from 1,203 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points (Bloomberg News, 4/18).

The Kaiser Health Poll Report is available online.

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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