Washington, D.C.: drug bills create hardship for many

Policy & Practice, March, 2004

The Associated Press

Almost one-third of Americans say paying for prescription drugs is a problem in their families, and many are cutting dosages to deal with the crunch, according to a poll by the Associated Press (AP). Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in the AP-Ipsos poll said the government should make it easier to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or other countries. The poll, conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs, found that most people surveyed either take prescription drugs or have a family member who does. Of those, 33 percent said their families have trouble paying at times. Of those with such trouble, three-fourths say the solution often is to cut back on the dosage. The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted in February and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Editor's Note: To help slow increasing drug costs, Michigan and Vermont were the first states to pool their resources to jointly negotiate lower prescription drug prices from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Under their program, manufacturers offer discounts on the most common drug classes, providing states with an additional 5 percent discount above the 20 percent rebate Medicaid programs typically receive from drug manufacturers. As this issue went to press, however, it was unclear whether Michigan and Vermont will keep their discount program if the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rejects their waiver.