Hillary Clinton reveals plan to stop 'price gouging' by pharmaceutical companies

During a campaign stop in Iowa Tuesday, Hillary Clinton unveiled her proposal for a $250 monthly cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs.

The Democratic presidential candidate said she wants to stop "price gouging" by pharmaceutical companies, Reuters reports. "We need to protect hard-working Americans here at home from excessive costs," Clinton said in Des Moines. "Too often these drugs cost a fortune."

Clinton's plan calls for encouraging the development and use of generic drugs, and making it so pharmaceutical companies can no longer write off direct advertising to consumers as a business expense — if that was stopped, she said, the government could receive billions of dollars in tax revenue. Clinton also proposes banning "pay-for-delay agreements," which occur when a brand-name drug owner pays a generic competitor to keep its product off the market for a set period of time; allowing people to buy drugs from other countries as long as there are strict safety standards; and having Medicare negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and rebates.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.