Voters Back Lowering Rx Prices, Medicare Dental, and Other Health Executive Orders
By Sabrina Jacobs
The coronavirus pandemic has made clear the inequities built into our systems of care, from vaccine distribution to the cost of prescription drugs. Progressives in Congress have been championing healthcare reform and vaccine equity, and new polling from Data for Progress finds major progressive healthcare proposals are popular among voters.
New polling from Data for Progress finds that 90 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 69 percent of Republicans agree the federal government should negotiate prices with prescription drug companies to lower the cost of essential medications.
Sixty-eight percent of voters — including Republicans by a +18-point margin, Independents by a +39-point margin, and Democrats by a +72-point margin — believe that we should establish publicly built and owned drug manufacturing facilities so the government can make critical medicines available at a lower cost.
President Biden is also considering expanding Medicare to cover Americans who have medical problems after being exposed to a public health hazard, such as lead water pipes. This Medicare expansion is supported by 89 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 62 percent of Republicans.
Biden may further expand Medicare to cover medically necessary dental care for people with certain conditions like diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson's disease. This expanded Medicare coverage is supported by 83 percent of voters, including Republicans by a +50-point margin, Independents by a +73-point margin, and Democrats by a +86-point margin.
The issues and distrust in our healthcare system became abundantly clear during the rollout of the coronavirus vaccines. In order to make information regarding the vaccines more accessible, Biden is considering an executive order that would require all coronavirus vaccine and treatment manufacturers to make key information about vaccine production public. The executive order is supported by 81 percent of voters, including 87 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Independents, and 75 percent of Republicans.
Voters also support investing in building public production facilities so that the U.S. is prepared to manufacture vaccines and critical drugs to combat the coronavirus in the future. Eighty-five percent of Democrats, 66 percent of Independents, and 53 percent of Republicans support building such a facility.
While Americans have access to the coronavirus vaccine, the same cannot be said for the rest of the world. In order to truly end the pandemic and protect people, it’s important that we make the vaccine available to everyone. Biden is therefore considering an executive order that will make the Walter Reed vaccine, created by the U.S. Army, available worldwide by sharing production technology with manufacturers. Sixty-six percent of voters support the executive order, including Republicans by a +22-point margin, Independents by a +52-point margin, and Democrats by a +68-point margin.
Although there are many faults in our healthcare system, the executive orders supported by the progressive caucus provide feasible solutions. If the president were to enact these orders, we would be one step closer to building a system that is easily accessible to all Americans.
Sabrina Jacobs is a digital fellow at Data for Progress.