Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton unveiled the first plank in her health care plan on September 22 in Iowa. Her plan, which she says is designed to build on the Affordable Care Act, focused on reining in the cost of prescription drugs. Her roadmap for the rest of the health sector will be released later this week.

This drug plan would: reduce the amount of time that drugs can be under patent protection, thereby paving the way for lower-cost generic drugs; allow the importation of drugs from Canada and other countries; introduce price controls into the Medicare Part D program; require drug companies to spend a certain percent of their revenue on R&D, currently 15-20 percent; and bar drug companies from charging patients more than $250 per month in co-pays.

If enacted, these prescriptions put forward by Mrs. Clinton would: cut R&D programs, which would reduce the number of new drugs being discovered and therefore decrease their availability to those who need them; cause a reduction in the number of research facilities, thereby reducing jobs; and send jobs overseas to low-cost countries.