A 22-year-old man in Wisconsin tragically died from an asthma attack after he could no longer afford his inhaler because his insurance significantly increased the price.
According to ABC 7 Chicago on Tuesday, Cole Schmidtknecht’s family is suing Walgreens, its parent company Boots Alliance, and the pharmacy benefits manager OptumRx for negligence after he passed away in January 2024.
Per the lawsuit, Cole suffered from chronic asthma since he was born and used an Advair Diskus inhaler to treat it. The inhaler always costs him $66 a month.
However, the price changed last year when OptumRx, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, no longer covered the medication!