Last week the House of Representatives passed legislation that would cap the price of insulin at $35 a month for most American diabetics who need it to survive.
The legislation was necessary because drug companies have hiked the cost of insulin to as much as $1,000 a month in order to pad their bottom lines, a 500% increase that endangers the lives of millions of diabetics, even those with health insurance.
Despite the importance of such life-saving measures, only 12 Republicans in the House voted to support the legislation.
One member of the GOP who voted against the bill was Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who tried to blame the high cost of insulin on the overweight instead of greedy Big Pharma companies, according to Mother Jones, telling his constituents:
While Democrat posturing of H.R. 6833 victimizes insulin payees as people with an uncontrollable disease that are being taken advantage of and need Big Brother to throw them a raft, lifestyle changes en masse would expeditiously lower demand and the subsequent prices of insulin. 90-95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which “can be prevented or delayed with healthy lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, eating healthy food, and being active.” Arbitrary price controls are no substitute for individual weight control. Since 2000, the number of diabetes cases in the U.S. has nearly doubled. The demand for insulin has increased and the requisite price increase has followed suit. In other words, the price of insulin increases as waistlines increase.
Keep in mind that 10% of Florida residents are diabetics. And Gaetz was far from done when it came to blaming diabetics for their condition, suggesting that his reasoning was simple: He was trying to stave off socialism in the United States:
“I will not see a reemergence of FDR price controls and join the Democrats in their attempt to pave the Road to Serfdom.”
This isn’t the first time Gaetz has fat shamed people.
Last August, the Florida congressman said he didn’t “fit in” with most members of Congress because so many of them are old and obese.
Looking young and fit is very important to Matt Gaetz, and there’s good reason for his rejection of anyone who is old or obese: When you allegedly get off on dating and sleeping with underage girls, you have to pretend to be youthful and ripped so you don’t look quite as pervy as you stand outside the nearest high school and wave a fistful of twenties around.