Caps on prescription drug price hikes most popular aspect of Inflation Reduction Act: poll

A cap on prescription drug price increases is the most popular part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the $430 billion climate, health care and tax package that President Biden signed into law Tuesday, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll. 

The poll found that 76 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat support placing a limit on the amount that prescription drugs can increase, while only 13 percent strongly or somewhat oppose it. 

The results also showed that several other pieces of the legislation are overwhelmingly popular. 

More than 70 percent strongly or somewhat support the law’s provisions to allow Medicare to directly negotiate some prescription drug prices and to reduce the federal deficit by $300 billion in the next decade. Just over 10 percent oppose these provisions. 

More than 70 percent also support the act limiting annual out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients to $2,000, while 15 percent oppose it. 

Majorities also support the bill’s provisions to implement a 15-percent corporate minimum tax on the largest companies, provide $60 billion to incentivize clean energy manufacturing in the United States and invest $369 billion in climate and energy programs in the next 10 years. Less than a third of respondents said they oppose these initiatives. 

The poll found the least popular part of the legislation is its provision to give $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to allow the agency to hire new agents and increase its ability to investigate and recover unpaid taxes. Only 40 percent of respondents said they strongly or somewhat support it, while 46 percent said they oppose it. 

Republicans have railed against the provision to increase the IRS’s funding, saying it will result in more audits on the middle and working class. 

Respondents were split on the question of if the act will lower inflation, which has risen to its highest level in decades in recent months but showed signs of alleviating somewhat last month. 

The poll’s results show 24 percent believe the law will lower inflation, 23 percent said it will not significantly affect inflation and 34 percent said it will make inflation worse. About 20 percent said they were not sure or had no opinion. 

The poll was conducted Aug. 12-14 among 2,005 registered voters. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.