As the Trump administration promotes its new TrumpRx website and other efforts to lower prescription drug prices, a growing majority of the public worries about being able to afford prescription drugs, and large majorities across parties want the government to do more to regulate prices, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds.
The new poll finds 59% of the public now say they are at least somewhat worried about being able to afford prescription drugs for themselves and their families, the largest share since KFF first polled on this question in 2018. This includes about one in five (22%) who are “very worried” about affording prescription drug costs.
About seven in 10 (72%) say that there is not as much government regulation as there should be when it comes to limiting drug prices, five times the share (13%) that says there is too much regulation of drug prices. In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, at least two-thirds of Republicans (68%), independents (72%), and Democrats (77%) favor more government regulation of prices.
Fielded after the Feb. 5 launch of TrumpRx, a website that allows consumers to search for discounts on brand-name drugs, the poll finds a third (35%) of people who take prescription drugs say that they have heard at least “some” about it. Seven percent say that they have visited the website to compare prices on drugs, though the share is larger among people who take or have taken GLP-1 medications (16%), one of the categories of medications available on the site.
Prior to the launch of TrumpRx, drug discounts have been available through third-party platforms and directly from drug manufacturers. The poll finds that about four in 10 (42%) people who take prescription drugs say that they have used such a discount card or coupon in the past year. A similar share (39%) say they compared drug prices online to find the lowest price. Fewer say they purchased a lower-cost drug from an online pharmacy without using insurance (15%) or purchased a drug directly from a manufacturer’s website (8%).
Most of the public, including most independents, are skeptical that the Trump administration will lower drug prices for people like them, but President Trump’s base is more optimistic.
Most (59%) of the public says that it is “not too likely” or “not at all likely” that the Trump administration’s policies will lower drug costs for people like them, compared to about four in 10 (41%) who say it is “very” or “somewhat” likely.
Large majorities of Republicans (79%) and supporters of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement (88%) say that they expect the administration’s policies to lower drug costs. Far smaller shares of independents (35%) and Democrats (11%) say the same.
Looking ahead to November’s midterm elections, more voters say they trust the Democratic Party (38%) than the Republican Party (28%) to do a better job addressing the cost of prescription drugs, though a quarter (27%) of voters say they don’t trust either party. Democrats hold a similar trust advantage on addressing health costs in general.
Independent voters are also more likely to trust the Democratic Party than the Republican Party to address drug costs (31% vs. 18%), though a larger share trusts neither party (41%).
Designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF, this survey was conducted February 24-March 2, 2026, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 1,343 U.S. adults in English and in Spanish. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for the full sample. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.
