Youngstown & Ohio - Nan Whaley made a stop in Youngstown Thursday afternoon to unveil a new plan to lower prescription drug costs for Ohioans.

Whaley is the democratic candidate for state Governor and said this is a top priority if she takes office.

She said she's "fighting for Ohioans' pay to go up and bills go down" and believes a big culprit is drug costs, especially for seniors.

Whaley met with lawmakers outside Mercy Health Hospital downtown to announce the plan to fight the problem across the state. 

"I chose Youngstown because look, I think Youngstown is a place where we have a lot of working-class folks trying to work hard to make ends meet," she said, "I think Youngstown is very similar to Dayton and the sense that people are working really hard, they work harder and harder and they get further behind because they don't have a partner at the statehouse."

Whaley said if she becomes governor, she'll work to make prescriptions like insulin, more affordable.

"It [the plan] involves making sure big pharma doesn't price gouge Ohioans," she said, "also capping insulin to $30 a month... making sure we actually enact what has been studied by specialists to keep drug prices down..."

Along with capping the price of insulin, her plan includes legislation to:
-fine drug companies who raise prices without clinical evidence
-create an independent health oversight board to ensure transparency
-enact recommendations already made by Ohio's Prescription Drug Transparency and Affordability Council in 2020
-ensure Ohioans aren't paying more than other countries

"We know that too many seniors are having to make this very tough decision about whether they put food on their table or they get the lifesaving medicine they need," Whaley said, "and that's in the Mahoning Valley and all across the state of Ohio."

Whaley said she predicts her legislation would get bi-partisan support.

Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown was also at the meeting endorsing Whaley and said she's a "mentor" to him and a hard worker.