Affordable Insulin Now Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Madam Speaker, you do realize what is going on here, and I am going to be a little sarcastic because I am frustrated.
Insulin prices are outrageous.
But why is it outrageous?
The fact of the matter is our regulatory mechanic and our payment mechanic are the very things that broke this, and here you do a piece of legislation that will break it more.
Please, I beg of the majority: Hire an economist. And I will walk you through some of the facts on it. So, Madam Speaker, you are doing a bill here where you are going to subsidize the dollar amount in the back, but you are still going to keep the regulatory mechanics the way they are in their archaic designs, and then you are going to be joyful that individuals will pay what, $35 a vial?
At the same time we are subsidizing it billions and billions and billions of dollars.
Does anyone have a subscription to an aggregator on healthcare policy on your side?
You do realize, there is a co-op coming out of the ground right now that is going to be $50, $55 for a box of five. It is lower than your subsidized price. And this is their market price.
If you were doing something good for society, you would actually be moving this covax to the top of the regulatory stack and say: We want them to get permitted and licensed as fast as possible because they are still a year plus away. But it is being built right now, and you are about to screw up the solution. And if you really, really, really, really care about people--remember, I represent the population with the second highest number of diabetes. I represent a Tribal community that is number two in the world. Come with me some time and let me introduce you to people who have had their feet cut off. If you actually care about solving the misery, then read the science journals that made it clear last November, December, the success.
We know how to cure. And for my friend over here, you have a family member type 1--I know I need to go through the Speaker--but a family member with type 1, we know how to cure it now. And there is even the next generation of this. We have even learned how to do the stem cell, the isolate cell, tag it with a CRISPR so you can do a bio-foundry, meaning it doesn't have to come from your skin cells, we can basically now cure type 1 and the same technology will work for type 2. But we are going to have to deal with some societal issues. If you want to end the misery in society don't build more clinics, don't do a subsidy, get this technology to people.
And for those of us who are fiscal hawks and actually care about where we are going, you do realize that 31 percent of all Medicare spending is just diabetes. Thirty-three percent of all healthcare spending is diabetes. And so the brain trust here decides: Hey, let's subsidize this by billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars, screw up the movement to actually have cures to actually have a co-op provide the product dramatically less expensive.
Remember, the co-op is going to bring it in cheaper than the subsidized price without all the taxpayer money.
Please, I know the virtue signaling here is powerful. The economics are crap.
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