Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Wednesday that a portion of the controversial healthcare overhaul legislation that's designed to control Medicare costs will result in the denial of care for patients.
"You shouldn't put anyone between their doctor and their patient, not an insurance company bureaucrat, not a government bureaucrat," Barrasso said on MSNBC's "Jansing & Co."
Barrasso was responding to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's newly revived claim that President Obama's signature healthcare law would create "death panels."
"Though I was called a liar for calling it like it is, many of these accusers finally saw that ObamaCare did in fact create a panel of faceless bureaucrats who have the power to make life and death decisions about health care funding,"
she wrote on her Facebook page Monday.
When asked whether Palin's accusations were true, Barrasso said "I want to eliminate the entire law, have the entire law repealed."
"There is a portion of the law, the Independent Payments Advisory Board, [where] unelected bureaucrats are going to determine how much, if anything, is paid for different kinds of care in this country — very little way for Congress to overrule that," he added.
The Independent Payments Advisory Board (IPAB) will include a a group of healthcare experts tasked with cutting Medicare's payments to doctors if the program's spending grows faster than a certain rate.
Barrasso said the board's ratcheting down of reimbursement payments for treatments and procedures "will basically result in denying care to people with a decision being made by unelected bureaucrats."
The senator has rejected the healthcare law in its entirely and said that if the Supreme Court does not strike down the entire legislation in its ruling Thursday, Republicans will move repeal all of the Affordable Care Act.
"If any part stays in place, Republicans are committed to repealing the president’s failed healthcare law and replacing it with real reforms that actually improve care for Americans of all ages," Barrasso wrote in
The Hill earlier this month.
He called for "step-by-step" reforms that he said would lower the cost of healthcare, put patients and providers back in charge, reduce the number of uninsured and end lawsuit abuse.
"As a doctor, someone that ran for office ... I know we have problems with the healthcare system, but the Obama healthcare plan actually makes it worse," he said.
