YOUNGSTOWN — Nan Whaley, a Democrat running for governor, unveiled a five-point plan to lower drug prescription costs for Ohioans during a campaign stop in Youngstown.

“Folks are struggling to get by,” she said Thursday outside St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. “Nowhere is this more egregious than on the cost of prescription drugs. For too many Ohio families, the prescription drugs they need are being priced out of their reach while wealthy drug companies are seeing record profits. This is completely unacceptable.”

Whaley, a former Dayton mayor, said she would fight to pass legislation to fine “greedy drug companies that increase drug prices without medical evidence,” work to cap the monthly cost of insulin at $30, make sure Ohioans aren’t paying more for prescription drugs than those in other countries, act on expert recommendations to lower drug prices, and create more oversight and transparency in our health care systems including the creation of an independent health oversight board.

“These are five common sense solutions that will help Ohio families, but to pass these we need a brand new approach to running our state,” Whaley said. “Here’s the truth: rising prescription drug prices continue to be a problem for Ohio families because the folks running our state just don’t care.”

Asked how she could get the Republican-controlled state Legislature to agree to her proposals, Whaley said: “This is an issue of focus. If the state of Kentucky, which has a Democratic governor and a super minority (Democratic) legislature can pass and cap insulin at $30, so can Ohio. We see bipartisan bills moving in the Statehouse, but no one is making this a priority because everyone’s been bought off by special interests.”

She added: “If the governor made this a priority we would see it move. But we don’t see that priority. You use the bully pulpit.”

Whaley said she’s taken on drug companies before. When she was Dayton mayor, the city in 2017 was the first in Ohio and one of the first in the country to sue successfully drug companies that caused the opioid epidemic, she said.

The Dayton lawsuit came less than a week after then-Attorney General Mike DeWine — the current Republican governor who is seeking re-election — said Ohio was suing five pharmaceutical companies that marketed addictive prescription pain medication, according to a Dayton Daily News article. Whaley was quoted at the time saying the state’s lawsuit was limited while Dayton’s went after more than a dozen companies, distributors and pain specialists.

Whaley is facing John Cranley, a former Cincinnati mayor, in the May 3 Democratic primary for governor.

Among Cranley’s issues is making affordable health care accessible.

Cranley wants to open new rural health centers with a focus on primary health care as well as make health care benefits portable so workers can take their insurance with them from job to job, according to his campaign website.