Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) has what he describes as a fixation on how the disease of diabetes is affecting the United States.

Late last month, Schweikert made federal health care spending on diabetes the focus of a speech on the House floor about tackling the national debt.

The following day, at a congressional hearing on the economic effects of diabetes, Schweikert expressed hope that reducing the rates of diabetes and finding better treatments could be priorities that unite Democrats and Republicans.

Maybe theres a moment here, where this is not Republican or Democrat, right or left, said Schweikert, who is vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee, the two-chamber panel that convened the hearing. Its actually focusing on whats going on in our society and our moral obligation to find a way to end this misery.

But Schweikerts lofty rhetoric is at odds with aspects of his record. In the last Congress, Schweikert voted against a bipartisan bill that would have provided relief for diabetes patients struggling to afford insulin, a hormone that allows people to regulate their blood sugar.

Insulin, which scientists first isolated and used to treat diabetes in the early 1920s , is generally not patented. But because insulin production is controlled by just three companies, the price tripled in the past two decades, causing 1 in 4 Americans with diabetes to ration their supply.

In March 2022, the House, then under Democratic control, passed the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would have capped Medicare and private insurance enrollees monthly out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35. Twelve Republicans joined all House Democrats to vote in favor of the bill, but Schweikert was not one of them.