As a father of a Type 1 Diabetic, this issue is personal to me. As the co-chair of the Diabetes Caucus, the largest disease specific caucus in Congress, I work tirelessly along with my co-chair, Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette, to improve the everyday lives of those living with the disease.

We recently led the fight to get Medicare to cover reimbursement for Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) devices. 274 of my colleagues in the House of Representatives agreed and cosponsored this legislation. In January 2017, the Centers of Medicare Services approved reimbursement of CGM devices.

As a caucus, we were successful in obtaining $1.5 billion for the Special Diabetes Program which funds diabetes research and Native American treatment and prevention programs through the Indian Health Service. These victories signify our commitment to those families impacted by this disease.

The Caucus was instrumental in getting the National Clinical Care Commission Act signed into law by the President in November, 2017.  This legislation creates a commission to evaluate and make recommendations regarding improvements on how federal agencies can better work together. The commission also leverages federal programs related to diseases like Insulin.

In addition to the Caucus’ legislative endeavors, we launched an insulin pricing probe to investigate why the cost of insulin has skyrocketed and what actions Congress can take to reduce the burden many with diabetes face every month. For more information regarding this effort, please visit our Caucus website.

As we continue our work here, we will never relent our efforts and continue to pursue our goal of finding a cure for diabetes.