Diabetes and Republicans – Not a Sweet Story

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 38.4 million people in the U.S. have diabetes.  This equates to 11.6% of the population.  Another 97.6 million people over the age of 18 have prediabetes (38% of the population). For those over 65 years of age, 48.8% have pre-diabetes.  If you have diabetes, you are at risk for early cardiac death, stroke, limb amputation, blindness, and kidney disease.  Essentially if blood goes there – that organ is affected.  Preexisting conditions are also worse if you also have diabetes. 

Basically, diabetes is a chronic disease that affects how your body turns food into energy.  Energy comes from glucose or sugar in your blood. The glucose needs insulin to get into your cells to provide energy for your body.

 Those with Type 1 diabetes do not have enough insulin, so glucose cannot enter the cell where it is needed.  Type 1 diabetes usually is found during childhood or young adulthood.  These individuals must take insulin every day to survive.  Type 2 diabetes evolves over time. These individuals produce insulin but their body does not use that insulin effectively so the glucose is in the blood but not enough is going into the cells where it is needed.  There are several medications used to treat this type of diabetes, including insulin. 

Pre-diabetes is when your blood glucose/sugar is high but not high enough to meet the criteria for Type 2 diabetes.  Both pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes can often be prevented or lessened with lifestyle changes.  Obesity, poor quality diets and lack of exercise all contribute to your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

If you think you have diabetes or have a family history of diabetes, it is important to be checked to see if you have diabetes and if so, begin treatment.  Your life really does depend on it.   

So where does politics come into play with diabetes.  Republicans have historically cut funding for chronic disease prevention and management which includes diabetes. In a previous newsletter on this site, we saw that those with chronic diseases and who live in Republican controlled States have more associated disease and deaths.  Recently a bill submitted by the Democrats would place a cap at $35 on the price of insulin for all Americans. The Republicans stripped the portion of the bill providing this reduction to everyone and limited it to only those on Medicare.   However, President Biden shamed the manufactures to reduce the price for everyone.  Bob Good voted against this measure that would make insulin affordable to many Americans whose life depends on it.    When the Biden administration moved to decrease the cost of prescription drugs, including drugs used to treat diabetes, Bob Good and his fellow republicans voted against it.   Just this last April Governor Younkin vetoed a bill that would have established a board to review medication pricing across the commonwealth with the goal of stabilizing pricing for many drugs used to treat chronic diseases.

So, the Republican Party is not such a sweet deal, especially if you have diabetes.