Matt Gaetz Thinks People Concerned About The Price Of Insulin Should Just Lose Weight

Matt Gaetz is not a doctor, nor does he play one on TV. But he seems to have an alarming amount of confidence in his terrible medical opinions, like how contracting COVID is much safer than getting vaccinated against COVID (don’t ask). Now he is sharing a somehow even more offensive medical hot take after voting against a bill last week that would cap the price of insulin for diabetics.

As Mother Jones reports, the Affordable Insulin Now Act passed the House last week after every single Democrat and a dozen Republicans voted in its favor. Among the nearly 200 House Republicans who were against making a life-saving drug affordable for millions of people, however, was the controversial Florida congressman. While Gaetz’s disapproval hardly came as a surprise to anyone, he still chose to explain to his followers why he opted to vote against the bill. On Friday, he shared his feelings on—and woeful ignorance surrounding—the deadly diabetes epidemic with his followers, stating:

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.

As Mother Jones noted, more than 25 percent of Florida’s population (read: Gaetz’s constituents) are considered obese, “including Gaetz’s favorite Palm Beach resident, former President Donald Trump. And more than 10 percent of the state’s population suffers from diabetes, not all of which is caused by lifestyle factors.”

Even if we put aside the fact that there are two kinds of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2, and that diet has no bearing on the former: Just last week, a massive study found that individuals who had contracted even mild cases of COVID were at a 40 percent higher risk of developing diabetes within 12 months—an unanticipated side effect that The New York Times described as a “public health train wreck.” But don’t go looking for any sympathy from Gaetz, who has regularly fat-shamed both his political colleagues and Americans at large.

One would think that Gaetz, who has been accused of having sex with a minor and is under federal investigation because of links to a sex-trafficking ring, would want to stay as under-the-radar as possible. Then again, of all the things Gaetz has been accused of, being an intelligent person or political operator has never been one of them. Fortunately, people haven’t held back on sharing their thoughts about Gaetz’s callous commentary:

(Via Mother Jones)