MUSKEGO, Wis. — A retired Wisconsin teacher shared her story of navigating high drug costs this week with the president and the nation. 

Jackie Trapp lives in Muskego with her husband. She has an incurable but treatable form of blood cancer. Her treatment includes blood thinner Xarelto, which cost her tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket every year for nine years. 

“Before the Inflation Reduction Act my drugs cost anywhere from $15,000 to over $21,000 a year, every year, for nine years … and that’s just for two drugs,” Trapp told the president.

She talked about her struggles in the kickoff event for the “Investing in America” content series and thanked President Joe Biden for his efforts. At times during the event Trapp was emotional recounting her family’s financial burden. She told Biden, “my energy to fight cancer was diverted to finding ways to fund my prescriptions.” 

According to the president, the lifesaving drug Trapp takes dropped from an average cost of $517 to $197 for people on Medicare. Now, Trapp said her out of pocket cost annually is just $3,300 which will drop to $2,000 in 2025.

“We gave up quite a bit … we sacrificed big things and small,” Trapp told Spectrum News. From refinancing their home, to selling vehicles and having to tap into their savings, Trapp said, “we drew down considerable savings to almost where we have no safety net anymore.”

“A lot of these provisions are looking at being reversed if the elections go in a different direction than the Biden-Harris administration,” Trapp said.

Her experiences and those of other patients is something Trapp hopes people take into consideration when they vote in November.

Watch the full interview above.