Old voters vote based on the cost of prescription drugs – anything against that will lose them support

“We know that people 50 and older vote more than any other age group,” says Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president for government affairs. Sweeney points out that overall turnout tends to be lower in a nonpresidential year, and that will make the 50-plus vote even more important. Take the last midterm elections, in 2018: Turnout among Americans ages 45 to 59 was 56 percent; among voters 60 and over, the rate was 66 percent. The turnout among voters ages 18 to 29 that year? Just 33 percent. “We also know that voters 50 and older take time to find out where candidates stand on the issues,” says Sweeney. “They want to make sure that the people they are voting for are really going to represent them.” This election, voters across all age groups report being worried about pocketbook items like the price of food and gas. Continuing concerns over COVID-19 and voting rights, as well as local education issues, also rank high in preliminary surveys. But older Americans have their own issues that are top of mind. They want to know candidates’ views on them and will be evaluating how much progress incumbent lawmakers in Washington and in their state have made. Here are four that surveys show are top of mind among older voters. Prescription drugs At issue: Americans continue to pay among the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, and the problem’s not going away: List prices of pharmaceuticals increased by an average of 5.2 percent in 2021 for many of the medications that Medicare spends the most on. Medicare beneficiaries, who have a median annual income of just under $30,000, take an average of four to five prescription drugs every month and public opinion surveys consistently have found that many beneficiaries skip doses or don’t refill their prescriptions because of the cost. Status: In December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better Act of 2021, which included prescription drug reforms. The U.S. Senate has not acted on this bill even though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they want to lower the cost of prescription drugs. In individual states, about 90 Rx-related bills were enacted in 2020 and 2021, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. AARP’s state offices helped get 53 bills or regulations passed during that time, including measures requiring transparency in drug pricing, allowing lower-cost medications to be safely imported from Canada, creating state-based drug assistance programs, preventing midyear changes to the lists of drugs that plans cover and capping out-of-pocket costs on insulin. What older voters want: AARP’s Fair Rx Prices Now campaign has called on Congress to pass these measures to help lower prescription drug prices: Allow Medicare to negotiate prices with drugmakers, impose tax penalties on manufacturers that raise prices higher than the rate of general inflation and put a cap on out-of-pocket costs for those enrolled in Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. “Millions of Americans are looking to their elected leaders from both parties to put their differences aside and work together to lower drug prices,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer.