Cole Schmidtknecht, 22, had insurance but couldn’t afford to refill his asthma inhaler after the cost jumped from $70 to more than $500.


When 22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht tried to get a refill on the inhaler prescribed by his doctor to prevent asthma attacks, the medication that had formerly cost him less than $70 at his Appleton, Wisconsin pharmacy was now priced at more than $500, according to Cole’s father, Bil Schmidtknecht.

Stunned, Cole left the store with a medication designed to stop asthma attacks once they start, but without the Advair Diskus inhaler he needed to prevent attacks from happening in the first place.

Five days after his pharmacy visit last year, Cole had a severe asthma attack, stopped breathing and collapsed. He never regained consciousness and died. Doctors attributed his death to asthma.

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The Schmidtknechts are pushing for legislation that would require a 90-day warning when an insurance company’s formulary is changed. They are also suing Optum Rx, the PBM that took Cole’s Advair Diskus off his insurance company’s formulary, and Walgreens, his pharmacy, which, the Schmidtknechts say, didn’t offer Cole a way to control his asthma while another solution could be found.


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https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/asthma-death-prescription-price-pharmacy-lawsuit-rcna210075