GOP: Dem healthcare plans 'fall short'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Democratic healthcare reform proposals "fall short" in bringing down costs for U.S. families and small businesses, a Republican Party leader said Saturday.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in the GOP's weekly radio address that Democratic-sponsored bills moving through Congress this month would only worsen healthcare costs and add to the national deficit while lessening the quality of Americans' healthcare.

"Republicans want healthcare reform that works," Thune said. "Reform that brings down costs for families and small businesses, and reform that provides better care to more people. On all these points, the current proposals by the president and the … Democrat leadership in Congress fall short."

Thune claimed the Democratic plan would "spend more than $2 trillion and further increase our exploding deficit."

"Their plan would pile up higher costs, create new Washington bureaucracies and burden every state through new requirements on Medicaid," he said.

Instead, he touted such measures as preventative care, limiting the ability of Americans to bring "frivolous" malpractice suits against doctors and establishing an insurance pool for small businesses.