Posted on 02/06/2025 7:50:04 AM PST by Bon of Babble
A young man has passed away in agony after the price of his inhaler suddenly rose from $66 to $540.
The pharmacist had informed him that his medication would now cost $539.19 - a shocking increase from his usual cost of $66.86.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I don’t see how they will blame Trump, but they will try.
My daughter has severe asthma which means a trip to the hospital at least once a year when she needs something stronger than her nebulizer. Horrible to see someone struggle for breath.
I wish I'd been there, I would have paid for the inhaler myself.
And it probably only costs $10 to mass produce... Do not tell me this is NOT price gouging and unfair business practice.
yeah I dont really care about that at the moment....unless you already knew of this story...that’s the last thing to be concerned about after reading such a heartbreaking story
These inhalers cost about $2 to make.
The problem is America has a state-controlled, centrally-planned health care system, so the bureaucrats and the insider-cronies who follow their complex rules set the availability and the price.
“high price” is just another term for “shortage”
We’ve created a situation no different from the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
These costs went up during Biden’s reign. No drug should be priced this high. These breathing medications are not new at all.
I am disgusted.
Same was done to me. They want us to die and this is a way to do it. Rescue inhalers are essential.
“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.”
So sad. My thought on this is his parents didn’t reach the max on the pharmacy deductible from the insurance company. His doctor should have provided a sample until the billing could be worked out.
Happened to me yesterday. Received my bill for my new injectable. It was $5,300 for a single dose. My doctor gave me two samples until I can meet more of my deductible. It is such a shame for this to happen in America, but unfortunately it does.
Trump was fixing this until Biden was elected. Then it all went away. And this happened during Biden’s term.
Should have just moved the scrip to King Soopers or similar.
Walgreens wanted to charge me $1200 for a scrip, so I simply had the Doc move the scrip to KS.....$84.
That was more than 5 years ago.
“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.”
Insurance company probably denied it. He was probably one day too soon to have it filled for the insurance to cover it. Insurance companies do this all the time. they really do not care if you live or die because of their policies.
It is all about the dollar and human life is completely insignificant.
This is something RFK Jr would certainly look into as HHS secretary.
Which is why the big money doesn’t want RFK Jr to be HHS secretary.
Side point: The manufacturer of the inhaler has the right to cover its manufacturing costs AND its research and development costs. Plus make a reasonable profit. But it sure looks like something else is going on here.
Could be the manufacturer’s fault. Could be the insurance company’s fault.
They didn’t tell us what medication his inhaler contained. My dad had COPD and back in the 80s I used to go down to Nogales, Mexico and buy him inhalers of Atrovent and Proventil for about $2.50 each (about $10 in today’s money) when they cost $100 in the U.S. my dad had an 80% co-pay plan so they were still charging him out of pocket $20 for each one. Even with insurance I was able to get the inhalers at 1/8 of the cost of the copay. Americans are getting ripped off and murdered.
The poor kid should’ve had a buddy that lived along the Mexican border go over and get him some medicine.
In the middle of me doing this the federal government came out with a regulation stating that you needed a prescription with the medications you brought over from Mexico. I was coming over with an entire garbage sack of these inhalers without a prescription and the border agent just looked at me and said “Go on” and let me take it in without a prescription. Even the border patrol doesn’t believe in this crap be done to us.
“Do not tell me this is NOT price gouging and unfair business practice.”
Pre-existing condition the insurance companies will say. Beginning of the year, there are always higher deductibles. Plus where were the parents whose plan he was probably on?
I do not condone this, but this is what Trump was trying to fix before Biden took office.
These drug companies need to make money somehow so they can bribe people like Sanders and Warren for votes. Stop the bribes and prices should drop.
Family is suing Walgreens, too. Someone should have contacted the doc so he/she could try to resolve the situation.
Kinda brings home the point, should we be taking care of Americans before we spend hundreds of billions on non-Americans, afterall, it is American tax dollars.
Gee, I thought ObamaCare was supposed to cover these costs. Guess we were lied to...
It’s a shame for this to happen when USAID was spending billions on stupid, ridiculous things, some overseas. Thank God this is being exposed.
Meanwhile, people who were devastated by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina couldn’t get help, months after the disaster and billions upon billions were sent to the Ukraine (it was never enough).
My niece’s husband is fighting a terrible gut cancer - in January, the deductible goes back into effect, $8,000. They weren’t sure how they were going to cover it, hopefully, my brother-in-law helped out.
Computer algorithms are making the decisions. They are as cold as ice. I’ve written some.
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