Every morning in his Roxbury, Mass., apartment, 87-year-old retiree Clarence Hogan lifts a plastic inhaler and breathes in a powdery mist to treat his chronic lung disease.
The medicine doesn’t come cheap. In 2017, his out-of-pocket cost for an inhaler loaded with a month’s supply was $27. But when he went to pick up a new one last fall, he was stunned to discover the price had more than quadrupled, to $345 for a three-month supply.
“I’ve been retired since May of 1992, and I don’t have a lot of money,” said Hogan, who worked for decades at Raytheon as an electrical technician. “I stand in line at the drugstore waiting for my prescription, and I see people crying. They say, ‘I can’t afford this.’ ”
