lung disease, c.o.p.d. >> i live on the second floor, so climbing a flight of stairs, by the time you get up, you're literally huffing and puffing and gasping for air if you don't have your inhaler. >> reporter: and you need these inhalers to... >> live. >> reporter: last summer, perry lost health insurance coverage and missed a deadline to enroll in medicare's part-d drug program. she learned her inhaler would jump from a $50 co-pay to a staggering $1,000 a month. >> and then, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you're panicked. >> reporter: how long could you have lived like that before your savings would run out? >> probably a year, if i was lucky. >> reporter: wow. one in ten americans skip doses to save money, according to the c.d.c. >> this is one of the only industries where we still have no idea how much we're going to pay when we get to the cash register. >> reporter: m.j. hegar is a patient advocate for an online discount drug platform called hello hippo. >> if we want to drive prices down, we have to be able to inform and empower consumers. >> reporter: hello hippo uses its large customer base-- it