Voters Support Initiatives to Lower Drug Costs, Ban Junk Fees, and Strengthen Supply Chains
By Lew Blank
Although inflation has cooled down, millions of Americans are struggling heavily to make ends meet. Most Americans are not very confident that they could pay off an unexpected medical bill or save for retirement, according to the AP-NORC Center. Perhaps unsurprisingly, recent Data for Progress polling shows that more than two-thirds of voters say the economy is not getting better for people like them.
New initiatives from the Biden administration to lower costs could make a massive difference in helping Americans afford their living expenses and find much-needed financial security. These include allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs, banning hidden or extra “junk” fees, and strengthening supply chains. New Data for Progress polling finds these initiatives are highly popular with voters, including a majority of Independents and Republicans.
Voters Support Medicare Drug Price Negotiation, and Oppose Lawsuits Targeting It
In late August, the Biden administration announced that Medicare will negotiate directly with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 prescription drugs. Our polling at the time showed overwhelming, bipartisan support for this measure.
Throughout the year, prescription drug companies have launched an onslaught against Medicare drug price negotiation, including lawsuits from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and drug manufacturers like Merck and Novartis. These opponents argue that allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices will hinder the research and development of new drugs in the U.S.
In our survey, we presented voters with arguments from both sides of these lawsuits and asked them to choose which side they agreed with more. We find that more than 70% of voters across party lines oppose the lawsuits and support Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower drug prices. This includes 74% of Democrats, 75% of Independents, and 70% of Republicans.
Voters Support the Junk Fee Prevention Act
We also tested support for the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which would ban hidden or extra fees on items like cable and cell phone bills, apartment rental applications, and concert and sporting event tickets. We find that the proposal is overwhelmingly popular, with support from 77% of voters — including 81% of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 72% of Republicans.
Voters Support New Initiatives to Strengthen U.S. Supply Chains
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, more than half of the surge of inflation in 2021 and 2022 was caused by supply chain pressures. In this survey, Data for Progress tested support for new targeted investments from the Biden administration to improve the efficiency and resilience of American supply chains.
We find that a majority of voters support new investments to improve prescription drug supply chains (78%), food processing and fertilizer production supply chains (77%), and clean energy supply chains in communities where coal mines or coal power plants have closed down (64%). Additionally, 63% of voters support creating a new government council focused on strengthening American supply chains, and 56% support creating a new government office focused on improving the nation’s freight shipping network.
Each of these policies have support from at least 50% of Independents and Republicans.
In sum, these findings show that voters across party lines support new efforts to help lower costs and improve Americans’ financial security, including by lowering drug costs, banning junk fees, and strengthening supply chains.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a communications associate at Data for Progress.
Survey Methodology
From December 9 to 10, 2023, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,220 U.S. likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, geography, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.