Poll finds anxiety on health care
Most would pay higher taxes for lower-cost drugs
Ceci Connolly, Claudia Deane, Washington Post
(Posted in The San Francisco Chronicle)
Monday, October 20, 2003

As their drug bills soar, a solid majority of Americans say they want Congress to legalize the importation of lower-priced medicines from Canada and Europe, and would be willing to pay higher taxes to provide prescription drug benefits to senior citizens, according to a Washington Post- ABC News poll.

Although those polled expressed satisfaction with their insurance and medical care, the nationwide survey revealed deep anxiety about the future of the nation's safety net, with more than half saying they are especially fearful of losing health coverage or not being able to afford it in the future.

Eight in 10 said providing health insurance to all Americans was more important than holding down taxes. The survey also found that 6 in 10 would prefer a system that covers everyone over the present arrangement, in which nearly 44 million people lack insurance. That support drops below half if such a system meant a limited choice of doctors or waiting lists for care.

Thirteen months before the next election, the public's perceptions of the health care system track the partisan and economic splits seen on a range of other issues.

By comfortable margins, Republicans and the affluent reported being content with the quality of care in the United States; minorities, Democrats, the uninsured and individuals in poor health voice the most complaints.

President Bush, in keeping with previous polls, receives some of his lowest job performance ratings in the area of health -- particularly in providing prescription drug coverage for retirees and tackling the cost and availability of insurance. Only 1 in 3 people said they approved of his handling of those areas, compared with half who supported his efforts in Iraq and 67 percent who approved of his work in the war against terror.

The results come as policy-makers are wrangling over the very health-care issues on which voters are demanding action. Republican congressional leaders failed to meet a self-imposed deadline Friday for settling on the outlines of a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

In conjunction with those negotiations, lawmakers are debating whether to permit consumers to import prescription drugs. In a lopsided, bipartisan vote in July, the House approved a plan to legalize the practice, also known as reimportation because many medicines brought in from other countries are manufactured in the United States.

The poll, conducted Oct. 9 to 13, found strong bipartisan support for opening drug markets, despite warnings by the Food and Drug Administration that it cannot guarantee the safety of those products. Two-thirds said they believe drug importation should be legal; 12 percent said they or a family member had shopped for medicine outside the United States to save money.

When he lived in eastern Washington state, Paul Masters made the three- hour drive to Canada to save $60 on a one-month supply of his allergy medicine,

Claritin, which required a prescription at the time.

"Our insurance company told us to do that," said Masters, a Presbyterian minister who lives outside Philadelphia.

Like many surveyed, Masters is unmoved by the arguments of the FDA and the drugmakers. He said stockholders, not consumers, should pay for research and development, and federal regulators should devise a strategy for safely importing medicines similar to the current system for inspecting imported food.

The poll showed that Americans are united by twin fears: skyrocketing costs and the chance of suddenly becoming uninsured because of the patchwork insurance system.

"I don't know what I would do if I lost my insurance," said Mary Jane Keane of Connecticut. At 51, she has rheumatoid arthritis, a painful illness that requires expensive medication and frequent tests. "I am totally dependent on that insurance," she said.

Overall, a large majority of Americans (78 percent) say they are dissatisfied with the total cost of health care, and a narrow majority (54 percent) says it is dissatisfied with overall quality as well -- up 10 percentage points since a poll in 2000.

The poll surveyed 1,000 randomly selected adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.