Patient Testimonies | October 1, 2025
My name is Elaine Kniepfel. I’m a resident of Leawood, Kansas, a retired teacher of over 32 years, and school administrator for 15 years. At 83 years old, I’ve had the privilege to travel the world with good health for the majority of my life.
That changed one sunny morning at the age of 70 when I got up from bed, walked out onto my porch, and experienced severe dizziness and a loss of memory. By this time, I had already been struggling with some mobility issues for a while, so I went to see a neurologist who performed an MRI and lumbar puncture. They revealed traces of MS symptoms, leading to my diagnosis with multiple sclerosis that forced me to stop working.
My doctor first prescribed the drug Copaxone to help manage my symptoms, which I was on for years. Thankfully, at the time I qualified for financial assistance which covered the copay for the medication, but without it, the drug would have cost me over $100,000 a year. I eventually stopped taking the medication, both due to side effects that forced me onto even more medications, and the fact that some of my MS symptoms did go away. Unfortunately, the symptoms came back and I was prescribed Modafinil for MS related fatigue, which was a generic that had not worked a couple of months prior. I was then switched to Provigil, a brand name version of Modafinil, that would cost me around $96,000 a year.
It has been two months since I was prescribed Provigil, and I can still hardly believe its price tag. I’m already a walking drug store with all the medications that I need to take on a monthly basis, so the Provigil’s exorbitant cost has forced me to choose to not take it.
Even with a Medicare health insurance plan, the $2,000 cap on prescription drug costs is too much money for retired individuals on fixed incomes.
It is absolutely abhorrent that pharmaceutical companies charge such high prescription drug costs to patients who need the medicine the most.
Something has to change.