Despite strong support for Medicare drug negotiations, Biden sees little boost: poll

A new poll finds three-quarters of Americans favor Medicare’s new powers to negotiate prices for some prescription drugs, but President Biden isn’t getting a huge political boost for executing the policy.

According to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, 86 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans support the updated abilities for Medicare.

One in 5 Americans are neutral on the issue, while 6 percent outright oppose it, AP reported.

The Inflation Reduction Act approved in 2022 included language allowing the federal government to negotiate prices on Medicare, long a priority for Democrats.

The law was a major achievement for Biden, but it’s not clear Americans — even those who back the idea of allowing the government to negotiate Medicare prices — are giving the president credit.

The poll showed Biden’s approval rating at 40 percent, and that half of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of prescription drug prices, while just 48 percent approve.

The difference between respondents who favor the new Medicare policy and those who favor Biden “suggests the administration continues to struggle to connect the White House’s accomplishments to Biden’s personal popularity,” the poll said. 

Democrats generally approve of Biden’s handling of the issue, while one-third of independents and one-quarter of Republicans approve of his work to lower drug costs, the poll found.

“Republicans are still much more likely to approve of how Biden is handling prescription drug prices than they are to approve of his job efforts overall,” AP reported, adding that 8 percent of Republicans approve of Biden’s work so far.

Overall, the poll found that all voters want the federal government to ramp up its efforts to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices. 

Biden is up for reelection next year and is likely to face former President Trump in a general election, given Trump’s dominance so far in GOP primary polling. Polls suggest a rematch of the 2020 election would be a tight race.