A young man has passed away in agony after the price of his inhaler suddenly rose from $66 to $540.
Cole Schmidtknecht, 22, who had battled chronic asthma since childhood, was denied his life-saving inhaler when he went to collect his prescription at a Walgreens pharmacy in Appleton, Wisconsin on January 10, 2024.
The pharmacist had informed him that his medication would now cost $539.19 – a shocking increase from his usual cost of $66.86.
Walgreens had suddenly refused to cover his usual prescription under insurance after OptumRX changed its policy in the fall of 2023.
Unable to afford the astronomical price, Cole left the store without his inhaler.
For five agonizing days, Cole struggled to breathe, using only an emergency inhaler.
His desperate fight ended in tragedy on January 15, 2024, when he suffered a fatal asthma attack.
Emergency responders found Cole unconscious and blue.
Cole Schmidtknecht, 22, who had battled chronic asthma since childhood, was denied his life-saving inhaler when he went to collect his prescription at a Walgreens pharmacy in Appleton, Wisconsin on January 10, 2024
The pharmacist had informed him that his medication would now cost $539.19 – a shocking increase from his usual cost of $66.86
Despite efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead.
His devastated parents made the heartbreaking decision to remove life support on January 21.
Now, Cole’s family is fighting back, launching a lawsuit against OptumRX, Walgreens, and Walgreens Boots Alliance.
They are seeking damages for negligence and wrongful death.
Cole was reportedly given no warning about the insurance coverage change, which violates Wisconsin state law requiring 30 days’ notice.
According to the lawsuit obtained by Newsweek, the Walgreens pharmacist should have contacted Cole’s physician about alternative treatments, but failed to do so.
The pharmacist ‘never provided Cole with any more affordable workarounds to obtain his usual inhaler for his chronic asthma,’ the lawsuit read.
Schmidtknecht ‘repeatedly struggled to breathe, relying solely on his old ‘rescue’ (emergency) inhaler to limit his symptoms, because he did not have a preventative inhaler designed for daily use,’ according to the lawsuit.
The legal battle will be heard by US District Judge Byron Browning Conway, a Biden appointee, according to Law and Crime.
This comes just months after Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione was charged with murder for allegedly gunning down Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on a Manhattan sidewalk on December 4.
Walgreens had suddenly refused to cover his usual prescription under insurance after OptumRX changed its policy in the fall of 2023
Unable to afford it, Cole left the store without his inhaler. For five days, Cole struggled to breathe, using only an emergency inhaler. On Jan. 15, 2024, he suffered a fatal asthma attack
Now, Cole’s family is fighting back, launching a lawsuit against OptumRX, Walgreens, and Walgreens Boots Alliance. They are seeking damages for negligence and wrongful death
Earlier this month, a damning new report revealed that UnitedHealth Group has been overcharging some cancer patients by over 1,000 percent for life-changing drugs.
The Federal Trade Commission findings, which also names and shames CVS and Signa, comes as UHG reported huge profits.
UHG’s net income rose slightly to $5.54billion in the last quarter of 2024, despite the slaying of Thompson.
The assassination shocked the country and temporarily rocked the insurance firm’s stocks – but parent group UHG appears to have resurfaced strongly.
The FTC’s report revealed the biggest pharmacy benefit managers, which are companies that manage prescription drug benefits for health insurance providers, pocketed an extra $7.3billion over five years up to 2022 thanks to price gouging.
This included UHG’s pharmacy benefit manager, OptumRx, along with Cigna’s Express Scripts and CVS Caremark Rx.
‘The Big 3 PBMs marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent, and many others by hundreds of percent,’ the report concluded.
