Nearly three-quarters of the public (73%) think prescription drugs costs are 
unreasonable, and place the blame on pharmaceutical companies rather than health insurance companies, aKaiser Foundation poll found.
Asked for their views about why drugs are expensive, 77% of the public cited drug company profits, while 64% said the cause was the cost of medical research, 54% said the cost of advertising and marketing, and 49% said it was the result of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.
The survey asked who should pay for high-cost drugs. About 7 in 10 (71%) said health insurance should always pay for an expensive new drug recommended by a doctor when no lower-cost alternative exists, even if it eventually leads to higher premiums for everyone.
About 6 in 10 (58%) said insurance should only pay if an expensive new drug has been proven more effective than existing treatments. Only 17% said patients should be required to cover all or most of the cost themselves.
Just over half (53%) of the public believe there is not as much government regulation limiting the price of prescription drugs as there should be. Nearly 3 in 10 (28%) say there is about the right amount of regulation, and just 12% say there is too much regulation of prescription drug prices.
Half of those surveyed said they currently take prescription medicine. Of these, 76% say they find it easy to pay the cost of their medicine, while 21% say it is difficult. That rises to 34% among those with lower incomes.
Because of the cost of drugs, 25% of those taking prescription medicine say they have not filled prescriptions, skipped doses or taken less than prescribed.
The survey was conducted by phone June 2-9, 2015, among a random sample of 1,200 adults. The margin of error is 3%.
