Wisconsin man, 22, dead from asthma attack after price on inhaler skyrockets from $66 to over $500, parents claim in explosive lawsuit

A Wisconsin 22-year-old man died from an asthma attack when the price of his inhaler skyrocketed to over $500 and he was forced to choose to pay for rent over the “life-sustaining medicine,” his parents claim.Cole Schmidtknecht’s family is demanding damages from Walgreens Pharmacy and United Health Group’s OptumRx for their alleged actions leading to the tragic 2024 death, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.Schmidtknecht was diagnosed with chronic asthma as an infant but managed his symptoms with a daily dose of a corticosteroid inhaler for over a decade.The Green Bay area truck center employee earned a “modest hourly wage” and had a self-insured plan with his employer through United Health Group, the lawsuit obtained by Law&Crime detailed.His plan through OptumRx, a subsidiary of United Health Group, covered the corticosteroid inhaler Advair Diskus.Through the plan, Schmidtknecht paid roughly $35 to up to $66.86 during the “deductible phase of the plan.”Without insurance coverage, the doctor-prescribed medication would cost Schmidtknecht over $530, the lawsuit claims.In the Fall of 2023, OptumRx allegedly changed the list of drugs it would cover in 2024, with Advair Diskus being excluded from the covered medication.The pharmacy care business is accused of not relaying its formulary of covered drugs to its customers, an alleged violation of Wisconsin law that requires such businesses to notify patients at least 30 days before coverage runs out.The suit claims United Health Group is one of the three pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the country, overseeing over 79 percent of the fulfillment of drug prescriptions.The Schmidtknechts accuse PBMs of artificially driving up healthcare costs in several ways, including forcing customers to choose the more expensive medication when there is a cheaper alternative on the market.Schmidtknecht went to his local Walgreens connected with OptumRx to fill his prescription on Jan.10, 2024 and was tol...