Washington ? Almost a third of Americans say paying for prescription drugs is a problem in their families, and many are cutting dosages to deal with the crunch, according to a poll by The Associated Press.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said the government should make it easier to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or other countries.

Carol Valentine of Melbourne, Fla., said she lost her job after having surgery and faces $600 to $700 in drug bills each month without any insurance to pay for them. Without a local clinic’s help paying for those drugs, “I’d be dead,” said Valentine, who is 52 and disabled. “A lot of people I know skip meals because they can’t afford medicine.”

The poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs found most Americans either take prescription drugs or someone in their family does. Of those, 33 percent said their families have trouble paying at times. Of those with such trouble, three-fourths say the solution often is to cut back on the dosage.

Drug costs will be an important issue in the presidential campaign, said eight in 10 in the poll. Almost half said it would be “very important.”

In November, Congress passed a Republican-written Medicare prescription drug benefit that goes into effect in 2006. While it will help many seniors pay for medicine, it also increases the role of private insurance in the Medicare system. President Bush signed it into law in December.

Despite the new law, 52 percent of those polled said Democrats were more likely to make prescription drugs more affordable; 33 percent said Republicans would do better at it.

Two popular steps that could have made prescription drugs more affordable were forbidden by the new law:

• Letting Americans import drugs from Canada, Mexico and other countries, an idea supported by 65 percent of those polled for the AP.
• Giving the government authority to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices, favored by 71 percent.

The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was conducted Feb. 16-18 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.