WASHINGTON (AP) – Seniors strongly support a plan to let the federal government negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries, a new poll suggests.

Currently, insurers do that negotiating on behalf of their customers, or they hire somebody to do it for them. But about 85 percent of seniors want to let the government use its buying power to negotiate drug prices, including 65 percent who said they strongly favor such negotiations, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported Friday.

Only 12 percent opposed or strongly opposed government negotiations. House Democrats plan to introduce legislation in January that would require, the government to negotiate on behalf of seniors and the disabled. The Senate appears more lukewarm to the idea, and the Bush administration opposes it.

Julie Goon, special assistant to President Bush for economic policy, said the public’s support for government negotiations depends greatly on how the question is asked.

“If you actually say what government negotiation means – that the government is going to be limiting the drugs that you get, that the government may be deciding how and where you get those drugs … I think support goes rapidly down,” she said.

The poll also indicated widespread support for letting Americans buy medicine imported from Canada. About 79 percent favor or strongly favor such sales. Only 19 percent opposed.

“Many of the health policy proposals currently on the congressional agenda are broadly popular with the public, from drug price negotiation to reimportation to children’s health insurance,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the foundation, which conducts health research.

Kaiser conducted the poll with the Harvard School of Public Health. Questions for all 1,867 adults taking the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The margin of error for questions asked only of seniors increased to 4 percentage points.

The drug benefit has been labeled as the biggest change to Medicare since the program’s inception more than 40 years ago. Under the program, seniors choose a private plan that offers drug coverage in their state. The plan determines which drugs it will cover, and then it negotiates what price it will pay for those drugs.

The federal government heavily subsidizes the drug coverage, which allows the average beneficiary to save about $1,100 on the price of their medicine. The program has come in under budget, and the large majority of people enrolled say they are satisfied, polls consistently show.

Despite those satisfaction rates, most seniors believe the program can be improved. When asked what overall message about the drug benefit that seniors would send to Washington, 12 percent said the benefit is working well and no real changes are needed, while 41 percent said it could be improved with some minor changes. Meanwhile, 28 percent said it’s not working well and needs major changes. Ten percent said the program should be repealed.

Wendell Primus, an aide to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the next speaker of the House, said Democrats were still working on how the government would negotiate for medicine. However, he said the legislation would require the negotiations, which is stronger language than Pelosi has used at times. He said that legislation permitting the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department to negotiate would likely have no effect because the Bush administration has made clear its opposition to the concept.

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On the Net:

Kaiser Family Foundation: http://www.kff.org

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