Poll finds overwhelming opposition to Prescription Drug Reform Act

by | Apr 19, 2023



  • A poll released this week found 75% of respondents and 90% of seniors oppose Senate Bill 1550 and House Bill 1509, which aim to impose additional government regulations on prescription drug benefits.
  • Critics argue that the bills would increase costs without addressing the core issue of high drug prices set by manufacturers.
  • Supporters say the goal of the legislation is to increase transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and prevent pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from requiring patients to use affiliated pharmacies or receive drugs through the mail.
  • Opponents point out that the legislation could lead to higher plan costs for employers and employees.
  • The poll surveyed 800 respondents in both Spanish and English and highlights concerns over the potential negative impact of the proposed legislation on prescription drug access, affordability, and safety standards.

A new poll released this week by Floridians for Government Accountability (FGA), in partnership with J. Wallin Opinion Research, shows that 75% of all respondents and 90% of seniors are opposed to Senate Bill 1550 and House Bill 1509. The bills would impose additional government regulations on prescription drug benefits offered by employers and Medicare, but opponents argue they would increase prescription drug costs without addressing the root issue of high drug prices set by manufacturers.

Those concerns are what is driving the overwhelming poll results, according to a memo from Justin Wallin, founder and CEO of J. Wallin Opinion Research, who conducted the poll for FGA.

“A full 55% of Florida voters recognize that the high costs of prescription drugs lie at the feet of drug manufacturers. Even more worrisome to voters is that passage of this legislation as written will make it harder and costlier to receive their important medications by mail, and undermine important safety and quality requirements,” Wallin wrote in the memo. “Florida voters oppose this legislation, understanding that it will enact burdensome regulations and increase the cost of their prescriptions.”

Both the Senate and House proposals seek to dramatically reshape the Medicare program, potentially increasing health care costs by as much as $10 billion over the next ten years. But critics argue that the bills would make it more difficult and expensive for patients to receive prescriptions by mail, limit seniors’ ability to use lower-cost pharmacy options, and undermine important safety and quality requirements for pharmacies that handle medications for chronic conditions and diseases.

The Senate is expected to take up SB 1550 later this week for a full floor vote. Supporters of both bills, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and Senate sponsor Jason Brodeur, argue that the bills aim to increase transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and prevent pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from requiring patients to use affiliated pharmacies or receive drugs through the mail. Critics of PBMs claim that their practices are anti-competitive and predatory, resulting in decreased patient access to medication and higher consumer costs.

However, Connor Rose, senior director of state affairs for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a PBM-industry group, expressed concern that the legislation could lead to unintended consequences, such as higher plan costs for employers and their employees.

The poll, which surveyed 800 respondents in both Spanish and English, has a margin of error of +/- 3.4%.

View the full results here.

6 Comments

  1. Deborah Coffey

    DeSantis and the legislature continue to bury themselves. Abortion, guns galore, Mickey Mouse, and now drugs….Bye, bye GOP.

  2. Anonymous

    I have a hard time believing seniors and others understand these bills just through media coverage. I’d love to know who has been messaging to them. What vested organizations, pharmas, middle men or others, have been campaigning against this with people? And why? I don’t see an organic reason for a poll being this lopsided.

    • Deborah Coffey

      People Google. Try Googling this: what do pharmacy benefit managers do? It’s really not that complicated.

  3. Trump for jail

    Desantis and the clown car legislature are good at dividing people with culture wars but worthless at doing what elected representatives are supposed to do. Govern!

  4. Barney Bishop III

    It’s easy to see why the results are so strongly negative when you look at the 2 page memo that the polling company provided. On the second page they discuss “Key Messaging” and this is where they indicate three other questions that were asked and all of them are questions that lay the predicate for opposing that PBMs be regulated by advancing the PBM arguments against Gov. DeSantis proposal. This is why the numbers are so high in the negative because these other questions were asked, perhaps before the key questions were asked on the first page of the memo.

    • Tarno

      Thanks for the heads-up !! I had to look closely for the link (full results here).
      I have been confused by the media coverage on this bill, but, from what I have been able to understand, it is more of a disclosure and anti-trust measure. So if our legislators got this bill right, it should cause the opposite of what the polling company stated in their memo by virtue of more competition among the pharmacies.

 

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