The affordability of drugs for serious diseases is the leading health issue for three-quarters of Americans of all political stripes, a new survey finds.
The poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation was released Wednesday, amidst ongoing news stories about huge increases in the prices of critical medicines, the Associated Press reported.
The survey found that 77 percent of Democrats, Republicans and independents said the keeping drugs fro cancer, HIV, hepatitis and other serious conditions is their top priority.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they support government action to lower prescription drug costs. Even 56 percent of Republicans said government action to control drug prices should be a priority, the AP reported.
Average prices for the most widely used brand-name drugs rose 128 percent between 2008 and 2014, according to prescription benefit manager Express Scripts. In 2014, total U.S. prescription drug spending climbed 13 percent, the company estimated.
The issue has attracted the attention of politicians, and Democratic presidential campaign candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have promised reforms meant to keep drug prices under control, the AP reported.
Despite strong public support for government action, major changes are not likely to occur anytime soon, according to many experts. Unlike many other nations, the United States has never set prices on prescription drugs, and efforts to give government plans like Medicare and Medicaid more power to negotiate medicine prices have always failed.
Any changes in federal policy would have to make it through the Republican-controlled Congress, "making changes unlikely, despite the drug pricing rhetoric from the campaign trail," according to analysts with investment banking firm Jefferies, the AP reported.
