Did UnitedHealth Exploitation Result in Yet Another Preventable Death?

22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht's asthma medicine abruptly jumped from $55 to $700—unable to get the medicine he needed, he died 5 days later

If you’ve followed my writing, you’ve seen my extensive coverage of how the health insurance industry exploits working people in this country—including the preventable harm and suffering such corporations imposed on my own 9-year-old daughter. Today, I write about another horrifying story—that of 22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht. When Cole walked into his pharmacy to refill his asthma medication, he faced a shocking price tag. The inhaler that once cost under $70 had suddenly jumped to over $500. Cole, like millions of working-class Americans, didn’t have an extra $500 lying around to spend on the same medicine he had always used to stay alive. So he left the pharmacy with a cheaper emergency inhaler and nothing else.

Five days later, Cole collapsed from a severe asthma attack. He never regained consciousness. He died. At 22 years old. From asthma. In the richest country in the world. Unsurprisingly, the corporation behind his denied care was once again UnitedHealth. Let’s Address This.

Cole Schmidtknecht, 22 years old

Let me be crystal clear: this was not an unavoidable tragedy. This was a profit-driven execution. Cole’s death was preventable. But he was killed—killed—by a system designed to exploit, deny, and dehumanize working-class people for the benefit of billionaires.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We don’t have healthcare corporations in this country—we have HELL corporations—Health Exploitation Limited Liability. Their business model is built on a simple formula: deny care, cash in, and call it “cost savings.” And once again, that is what happened here.

Cole’s insurance coverage was managed by Optum Rx, a Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) under UnitedHealth Group—yes, the same UnitedHealth whose CEO was allegedly killed by Luigi Mangione. Per the Schmidtknecht family, that price jump was beyond Cole’s means, and he left the pharmacy with inadequate medication.

A HELL Corporation apparently knowingly denied a person medicine they knew he needed to live. Once again

We need to stop pretending this is normal. It is not. Meanwhile, UnitedHealth has responded to the lawsuit filed by Cole’s family by filing a motion to dismiss. That’s right: in response to Cole’s death because he couldn’t afford the medicine he was prescribed, the multi-billion-dollar corporation involved is more concerned with escaping accountability than saving lives.

Remember, a Yale-Lancet study has already found that 68,000 Americans die every year simply because they lack access to basic healthcare. Let me say that again. Sixty-eight. Thousand. Every year. And yet our politicians, left and right, still submit themselves to the healthcare lobby and let these HELL corporations run our country.

How many more young people have to die? How many more parents have to bury their children before we finally recognize that healthcare is a human right—not a line item to be auctioned off for stock buybacks?

I say this with the full weight of personal grief. I lost my own cousin to a preventable asthma attack—under almost identical circumstances. In the U.S., asthma and allergies kill about 4,000 people every year. Most of those deaths are preventable. Yet we tolerate this violence as if it were an act of God, not an act of greed.

Meanwhile, the WSJ reports that that DOJ has opened a criminal fraud investigation into UnitedHealth’s Medicare practices. This isn’t an isolated incident. Last year, a five-year investigation into UnitedHealth’s practices by the FTC found that, “OptumRx, the group's pharmacy benefit manager, along with its two main peers, Express Scripts and CVS Caremark Rx, have pocketed an extra $7.3 billion over cost thanks to price gouging” of overcharging cancer patients by more than 1000%.

And let’s not forget Walgreens, the pharmacy where Cole tried to get his medicine. The lawsuit filed by Cole’s family alleges that Walgreens failed to notify him of affordable alternatives and didn’t reach out to his doctor—two things the company was required to do. Instead, Cole was handed an emergency inhaler and sent home. That inhaler was found next to his bed. It was empty.

Now, UnitedHealth and Walgreens are offering their “deepest sympathies”—but only as they ask the court to dismiss the case.

No. That’s not justice. That’s a cover-up.

To every politician—Republican or Democrat—who refuses to declare healthcare a human right, I ask: What will you tell the Schmidtknecht family? What would you tell my family? That Cole should have picked a cheaper disease? That my cousin should have chosen a more affordable time to die?

Asthma doesn’t care what political party you belong to. It will kill you all the same.

And now, as we brace for more corporate-sponsored carnage, I ask you to remember Cole’s story. Remember his parents, who now bear tattoos of his memory, etched into their skin as permanent grief. Remember that this fight is not about theory—it’s about survival. And if you're still not sure what side you're on, let me help you out: you're either with the profiteers or you're with the people.

Choose wisely. Because one day, it could be your child walking into that pharmacy. And walking out with nothing.

We need class solidarity to fight for a country where healthcare is not a privilege for the wealthy, but a human right for all.