Why did Matt Gaetz vote “no” on the $35 monthly insulin cap?
Because he thinks what we should all lose weight first.
I’m not making this up, you know.
Arrgggghhh!!!
John
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#Matt Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend testifies to grand jury in sex trafficking probe
I think he’s got bigger problems.
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I really hate it when people especially politicians comment about diabetes and make decisions about our care when they know literally nothing about it.
Matt Gaetz was trying to tell us insulin is so expensive because type 2 people are using it instead of losing weight.
So yea he has no idea what he is talking about. Especially since most type 2 patients don’t use insulin.
And even some who do, losing weight isnt the point.
He wanted to be in the pockets of big drug companies and blame the patients for being fat, instead of doing the right thing.
When I was first diagnosed in the 1987, human insulin was new and it cost 17 dollars a bottle. After insurance I paid $ 1.70
Now it’s more like 400 dollars a bottle. Not because they have changed log insulin at all in over. 20 years, but because they can and because politicians allow them to do it and we can’t do anything about it.
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He is an uninformed idiot. One of those people that spout things they have no business commenting on when they obviously know so little about it.
So I hope someone takes their type 1 child to him and confronts him, and asks him how losing weight would help the child not use insulin. In front of everyone…he deserves it.
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Or perhaps Karma will bless Matt Gaetz with a sudden diagnosis of LADA 
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I remember when Gaetz was running for the Florida House of Representatives some years ago in Okaloosa county. He was replacing his father who was much admired and had a very successful career in the House. Gaetz went campaigning door-to-door in our neighborhood.and I can tell you he was an overweight twenty something then. I know his father is very disappointed in his behavior.
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@John_Bowler I’m pretty sure it was a cap on whatever insulin you need for the month? But it is for people with private insurance and people on Medicare. Trump had passed a voluntary option cap for Medicare enrollees already and Biden continued it. But the uninsured are still not covered in this.
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John, the bill in Congress does not change the price of insulin.
The bill caps the co-pay on insulin. If you have insurance then you are like “most Americans” but the bill doesn’t help the uninsured at all.
It is not obvious to me if the cap in the bill only applies to “formulary insulins” or if it’ll also cap the price on non-formulary insulins (essentially force the insurance company to pay for all brands on insulin, not just their formulary brands). Almost all of us insulin users have had to switch brands multiple times because insurance company changes the brands of insulins they will pay for. Sometimes the insulin switch is just a change in brand name. But more often the insulin we are forced to switch to, has rather different characteristics.
Matt Gaetz may be an idiot, but other people who are much smarter may be opposed to this bill because it does not actually lower insulin prices at the manufacturer level. This bill is actually favored by the insulin companies and opposed by the insurance companies.
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I think all of us advocating for more affordable insulin are at least partly and many majorly disappointed by this bill. If anything it takes the pressure off the insulin manufacturers to have a reasonable price, since the insurance company (and premiums) will make up for any price raises. (Not that the pressure has done much good in the past decades to begin with).
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I’d like to clarify one point of information here.
Humalog and Novolog are both rapid-acting analog insulins (RAAI), not Regular. RAAI’s and Regular each have materially different action profiles. Regular insulin has longer onset, peak and duration time than the RAAI insulin formulation and is classified as short-acting. Rapid-acting and short-acting each have distinctive meanings in this context.
The manufacturers of Humalog and Novolog both produce a Regular insulin called Humulin R and Novolin R respectively. Novolin R, by the way, is the Regular insulin that one can purchase from Walmart.
A RAAI is an analog insulin where a few proteins in the normal amino acid chain are swapped out. These substitutions account for the shorter onset, peak and duration time of the analogs versus Regular. Regular insulin, is an exact duplicate of the amnio acid sequence found in the insulin that the human pancreas produces.
I couldn’t agree more with this. Complexity is deliberately created to produce an environment in which to steal. As consumers we must work against the policies of both Pharma and their legislative handmaidens – not any easy task!
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A few years ago I had similar large $3000+ bill due to ER kidney stone and followup care/imaging, early in year. For major expenses, I was able to get payments spread out 3-4 months, no extra charge. Then another delay (for hit to my $) by using credit card and payoff each month. Or in some cases used HSA funds.
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I wouldn’t have expected this sack of s**t to vote responsibly on anything… It’s sad that people vote for these dirt bags… and these idiots are running our country!!! Very scary indeed…
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It’s everywhere not just in healthcare. We feel it more because we need insulin to live. And we have to pay what ever crazy price they fix because he have no choice.
Gasoline companies do it too and take advantage of things like this war, this quarter Exxon Mobil reported the highest profits in the history of the company.
So yea it has nothing to do with the price of oil or the war or shortages. It’s straight up gouging. Just like insulin manufacturers gouge us.
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That describes most people plus pretty much all of the health care professionals. Very few doctors know much about diabetes. It is unfortunate that two different conditions that share the symptom of high blood sugar are named the same. It seems that no amount of trying divorces the two from each other. I even had an organic, fresh food freak neighbor (not that I don’t believe in eating organic, fresh food) claim that she could cure my T1 diabetes with a change of diet. Frustrating and unfortunate.
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It is my understanding that he is a Republican. Last I looked, this country is presently being run by the Democrats. The fact that there is so much misunderstanding about diabetes is the fault of the ADA. They have blurred the difference between types for many years.
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@Willow4 The fact that he is a Republican or Democrat makes no difference on him specifically being an idiot. There are plenty on both sides to go around as is easily seen.
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Of course. I just wanted to make the point that Gaetz, a Republican, is NOT one of those running this country right now.
Thanks–that was confusing to me at first, too, so the further clarification is welcome.
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I’ve given up expecting any elected official, former or current, to be smarter or more knowledgeable than the average high school graduate or professional athlete . If they were, I’d be frightened with them having had as much power as they have.
If I were to get angry with every person who I know who is ignorant about the basics of diabetes, I’d have to be angry at everyone in my family including my mother who was an RN married to a type 1 diabetic for more than half his life 20 years.
If we’re to be angry with anyone it should be with doctors , who continue to use the same name for two very different diseases for decades after they understood that all “type 1” and “type 2” share is a symptom. When they understand the progression of a disease, they create more labels label for when or how fast that disease manifests, when there is no difference in treatment.
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