Cole Schmidtknecht had dealt with severe asthma his entire life. The 22-year-old from Wisconsin had been using the same inhaler since he was a baby to keep his breathing under control. His insurance covered most of the cost, so he only paid around $35 to $70 each month when he picked up his prescription. But when he walked into his usual Walgreens in Appleton on January 10, 2024, everything changed in an instant.
The pharmacy staff told Cole his insurance would no longer cover his Advair Diskus inhaler. If he wanted it, he would have to pay the full price of $539.19. Nobody had warned him this was coming. His doctor didn’t know either. Cole couldn’t afford to spend that much money all at once. So, his pharmacy gave him a different type of inhaler called a rescue inhaler, which only helps during an asthma attack. It doesn’t stop attacks from happening in the first place like his regular medication did.
