Get a new doctor. Stat.
No matter what kind of diabetes it is, all diabetes has a cause. Type 1 is generally held to be an autoimmune disorder, but it always has a triggering event. Type 2 comes from metabolic damage, primarily insulin resistance. No one is born with either kind of diabetes the way they are born with cystic fibrosis or sickle-cell anemia. Not only did your doctor lie to you (or is so misinformed he needs to not be working in medicine), he insulted your husband too, by implying that his genes are faulty when they're not.
There's some pretty strong evidence that even when a familial line has a greater tendency to type 2 diabetes later in life, that tendency is largely epigenetic, not genetic. In short, if you eat like crap and get type 2 later in life, you're more likely to have a kid who gets type 2 from eating like crap--but you can push that tendency in the opposite direction if you make good choices and encourage your kids to do so as well. Every person has the potential to become diabetic if they abuse themselves enough. For all your husband's doc knows, he's on his way to it as well.
If I were a doc I would not be concerned about your husband's cholesterol. Normal total cholesterol is 200 and he's barely above that and his HDL is 50. 60 is considered cardioprotective in both genders; less than 40 is considered low for men. See? He's only got another 10 mg/dl to go before he's perfect, and he's already above normal. Since this was a health insurance screening, his LDL was probably calculated. He can get a direct count of his LDL but that tends to be more expensive; check with your health insurance to make sure it'd be covered. At the least get a VLDL count--that's the small particles that are a sign of poor health. (I'm not convinced they cause it but they do seem to have an association with it.)
I'd get a triglyceride number if I were you. That's more important than cholesterol.
Personally, I'm more concerned about his blood sugar. Ideally your glucose would not go above 140 mg/dl an hour or more after you stop eating. More than that and you get glucose-related damage. But there's a simple fix. He's type 2 diabetic, not type 1; he's still making insulin. All he has to do is reduce the sources of sugar in his diet, which include all digestible carbohydrates, and he'll get that under control. He's already on metformin which is supposed to increase insulin sensitivity. If he's still getting high sugars then he definitely needs to watch his diet. And if he changes his diet then he needs to watch his sugars closely because of the metformin he's on. It wouldn't do any good to bring his sugars down only to bring them down too far.
Don't be fooled by glycemic index or glycemic load. Even if something provokes less of a blood sugar response it can still have too much fructose in it and be affecting the liver, which will aggravate his diabetes in the long run. Sugar is sugar, and the less sugar, the better.
Your doc is right about one thing: the diabetes will never go away. But the diabetes itself is not what's important. What's important is maintaining a normal blood sugar response. High sugar is what kills a diabetic. As long as your husband eats in a way that manages his disease, he should be fine. It's not a death sentence unless he refuses to change his behavior.
The only real benefit they've found for statins is their anti-inflammatory activity. Your husband would be better served adopting an anti-inflammatory diet than taking a pill. Especially given all the wicked side-effects of statins. They've been implicated in the cause or worsening of type 2 diabetes, increased cancer risk, decreased mental function, and muscular pain. Not worth it. It's more fun to cut grains and eat more beef, if you ask me--and a lot healthier too.
