Hillary Clinton presented a plan to regulate prescription drug prices while campaigning in Iowa Tuesday, focusing on reining in pharmaceutical companies.
Clinton promised to encourage the development of generic drugs to compete with pharmaceuticals, require drug companies to re-channel funds from marketing to research, and allow Americans to import drugs from overseas. She also pledged to require higher rebates for prescription drugs through Medicare and to allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices through the retirement entitlement.
Clinton said that her plan would help children, veterans, the elderly and any person struggling to pay for healthcare.
“I want to strengthen the Affordable Care Act because it didn’t fix all our problems,” Clinton said, highlighting the growing cost of prescription drugs. “So, while the overall growth in healthcare spending has slowed, for a lot of families it doesn’t feel like healthcare costs are under control because their out of pocket costs are rising.”
“I think we can do better,”she added. “I want us to take a really hard look at the parts of the Affordable Care Act that need improving.”
The plan will also cap monthly and annual out-of-pocket costs for drugs, a plan that many states have already adopted, but insurers don’t like, as they believe it unfairly raises costs for them while artificially lowering costs for consumers.
“Secretary Clinton’s proposal would turn back the clock on medical innovation and halt progress against the diseases that patients fear most,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said in a statement prior to Clinton’s speech. “These sweeping and far-reaching proposals would restrict patients’ access to medicines, result in fewer new treatments for patients, cost countless jobs across the country and erode our nation’s standing as the world leader in biomedical innovation.”
The Democratic front-runner has been focusing on healthcare accessibility at each of her stops on the campaign trail this week, most recently praising Obamacare at stops in Louisiana and Arkansas. Clinton first introduced healthcare legislation in the 1990s, when her husband Bill was in office.
