Barrasso: 'Americans deserve better'

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WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- Saying "America deserves better," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., pledged Saturday to press for repeal of the healthcare law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Now we have another chance to reform our healthcare system and in a way that does not result in higher costs, in fewer choices and less personal control," Barrasso said in the weekly Republican media address.

"There should be no doubt: Republicans in Congress will fight to repeal the president's failed healthcare law. It is a law that is bad for patients, it is bad for the nurses and the doctors who care for those patients and it's terrible for taxpayers."

Barrasso, a doctor for 25 years, said the healthcare law "remains unworkable, unaffordable, and very unpopular. Americans deserve better."

He said the Affordable Care Act had worsened the economy and imposed new healthcare mandates that make it more difficult for Americans to find good jobs.

Barrasso criticized the individual mandate requiring people to have insurance as a "tax" that will result in more Internal Revenue Service agents "to investigate you and to make sure you buy insurance."

The Wyoming senator said Republicans would seek "commonsense solutions" to healthcare reform that would reduce healthcare costs.

"That means commonsense solutions, like allowing premium breaks to encourage healthy behavior," he said. "It means letting consumers buy insurance across state lines and letting small businesses pool together to offer affordable health insurance to their workers. It means finally ending the lawsuit abuse that leads doctors to practice defensive medicine by ordering expensive and unnecessary tests."