National Diabetes Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I thank both Congressman Jackson and Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick for their leadership and for co-chairing and co- anchoring tonight's Special Order hour for the Congressional Black Caucus.

To the previous speaker and my classmate, Representative Donald Payne, I am grateful for his tremendous leadership and personal lived experience on this very important topic.

I am grateful for so many of the other members of the CBC who have spoken on the importance of recognizing November as National Diabetes Awareness Month and have highlighted the disparate impact that diabetes has on the Black community.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans are 60 percent more likely than White Americans to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. Additionally, the health outcomes of Black Americans diagnosed with diabetes are worse than the outcomes experienced by White Americans. Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalized from long-term complications, 3.2 times more likely to be diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, and twice as likely to die from this disease.

We know that the rate of diagnoses among Black Americans is on the rise. Over the past two decades, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes for Black and Hispanic youth has increased by 95 percent.

At the start of the 117th Congress, the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in the majority of the House and Senate made it our priority to lower everyday costs for the American people and to improve the affordability of lifesaving prescription drugs like insulin. We delivered on that promise.

With unanimous support from the Congressional Black Caucus and House and Senate Democrats, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped the cost of insulin at $35 per month under Medicare prescription drug coverage, traditional Medicare, and Medicare Advantage. Because of this action, some private companies have extended that reduced cost to others, including children.

The IRA has significantly improved the affordability and accessibility of lifesaving insulin for the 1 in 10 Americans with diabetes, including millions of seniors who in some cases were paying as much as $400 for a month's supply of insulin.

After the insulin cap for seniors went into effect, the top three insulin manufacturers reduced their prices for all Americans, as I indicated. This is what we can do when the government works for the people. This is what the Democratic Party does when we are in the majority. We put people over politics, and we will continue to do that on behalf of the American people, who deserve nothing less.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Congresswoman Shontel Brown, who led the CBC in a press conference today by marking National Diabetes Month, as well as all of our members for their work in uplifting the stories of their constituents who are living with diabetes and who have benefited from the insulin cap under the Inflation Reduction Act.

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