Medicine prices: Americans count the cost

A new poll, the third in a series conducted jointly by USA Today and public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, finds Americans greatly value prescription medicines' potential benefits for their families, but most believe they cost too much money and many struggle to pay for needed medicines.

Four in 10 Americans (and half of those regularly taking at least one medication) report experiencing at least one of three cost-related concerns in their family. Some 16% say it is a "serious" problem to pay for prescription medicines; 29% say they have not filled a prescription in the past two years because of the cost; and 23% say they have cut pills in half or skipped doses in order to make a medication last longer. People are most likely to report one of these three issues if they lack medical coverage (52%), if they have low incomes (54%) or if they take four or more medicines regularly (59%).

Suspicious of manufacturers' motives

The survey finds that while the public values the products pharmaceutical companies produce, they do not like what they charge and are suspicious of their motivation. Nearly eight in 10 Americans say that the cost of prescription medicines is unreasonable, and seven in 10 say pharmaceutical companies are too concerned about making profits and not concerned enough about helping people. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public say that there is not enough government regulation to limit the price of medicines. Nearly six in 10 say insurers should only pay for new medicines if they are proven to be not just safe but also more effective than existing ones.

At the same time, the public overwhelmingly believes that recent advances in prescription medicines provide benefits. Nearly three-quarters (73%) say that prescription medicines developed over the past 20 years have made the lives of people in the U.S. better, and nearly two-thirds (63%) say the same about their own and their family members' lives. In addition, six in 10 (59%) say prescription medicines reduce the need for expensive medical procedures and hospitalizations.

Mixed opinions

Overall, the public has mixed opinions of pharmaceutical companies, with 47% viewing the industry favourably and 44% unfavourably. Pharmaceutical companies are viewed slightly more favourably than health insurers (40% favourable), but significantly less than doctors (81% favourable).

Despite recent controversies, more than half the public (55%) thinks pharmaceutical companies do enough to test and monitor the safety of their medicines, and the same share (55%) trust pharmaceutical companies at least somewhat to quickly notify the public about safety concerns. Majorities also think that pharmaceutical companies act in an ethical way when testing their products on people (62%) and on animals (56%).

Other key findings

• Use of prescription medicines...Half of all adults say that they take a prescription medicine daily, and one in five say that they take at least four prescription medicines regularly.
• Advertising...Almost all Americans (91%) have seen or heard prescription medicine ads, and nearly a third (32%) have talked to a doctor about a prescription medicine they saw advertised. Among those who talked to a doctor about a medicine they saw advertised, 44% say their doctor gave them a prescription for that medicine and 54% say their doctor recommended another prescription (resulting in 82% who got a prescription for the medicine they asked about and/or another medicine).
• Safety... Despite recent controversies about medicine safety, a majority of Americans (78%) say that they are at least "somewhat" confident that prescription medicines sold in the U.S. are safe, with just more than a quarter saying they are "very" confident. Nearly half of Americans (47%) say that there is about the right amount of government regulation of medicine safety, while 44% say that there should be more regulation and 8% say that there should be less.
• Medicine approval process... About half of Americans say that pharmaceutical companies have too little or the right amount of influence on which medicines are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, compared with about four in 10 who say these companies have too much influence. A slim majority (52%) also says the government moves too slowly when reviewing and approving new medicines.

The nationally representative telephone survey was conducted between January 3 and January 23 among 1,695 adults ages 18 and older, and has a margin of sampling error of approximately 3 percentage points. USA Today this week is running news stories drawing on the poll's results. Earlier surveys in the USA Today/Kaiser/Harvard partnership addressed health care costs and the impact of cancer on families. Full results of the new poll are available here.

Article courtesy of the Kaiser Foundation