Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing a $250 monthly cap on the amount patients with chronic and serious medical problems would have to pay out of pocket for prescription drugs as a way to reduce the effect of skyrocketing drug prices on consumers.br The cap is part of Clinton's program to alter and expand the Affordable Care Act, the signature domestic policy achievement of President Obama, if she is elected to succeed him.br Clinton is calling her health-care ideas a way of refining the Affordable Care Act, the sprawling 2010 law that is reshaping parts of the U.S. health-care system.br Parts of Clinton's proposal reprise ideas for controlling the cost of prescription drugs that Democrats have advocated for years and that have been the subject of heated debates on Capitol Hill.br Many congressional Democrats also have long contended that Medicare should be given power to negotiate directly the price of drugs that are sold to the older and disabled Americans insured through the program.