The USA Today, Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health conducted a joint Public Health Survey in January 2008 of 1,695 American adults ages 18 and older. 41% of Americans said paying for prescription medicines was either a ’serious problem’ or a ‘problem, but not serious’ … 58% said it was ‘not much of a problem”.

Doctors received the highest opinions on the survey, with oil companies, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies receiving the lowest survey scores.

Some of the other interesting findings are:

1) General Opinions of Pharmaceutical Companies and Other Groups:

Doctors - 44% very favorable opinion / 7% very unfavorable opinions
Banks - 27% very favorable opinion / 7% very unfavorable
Food Manufacturers - 24% very favorable opinion / 8% very unfavorable
Airlines - 21% very favorable opinion / 8% very unfavorable
Pharmaceutical Companies - 15% very favorable / 23% very unfavorable
Health Insurance Companies - 13% very favorable / 29% very unfavorable
Oil Companies - 9% very favorable / 46% very unfavorable

2) In general, do you think the cost of prescription drugs is reasonable or unreasonable?
79% said ‘unreasonable’; 18% said ‘reasonable’.

3) Do you currently take any prescription medicine, or not?
45% said ‘no, do not take’
54% said ‘yes, take’.

4) In general, do you think people in this country (USA) pay higher or lower prices than people in Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe pay for the same prescription drug, or do you think they pay about the same amount?
76% said they ‘pay higher prices
10% ‘about the same’
6% ‘pay lower prices
8% ‘don’t know’.