Doctor-Turned-Lawmaker Sen. John Barrasso Fights Obamacare

Sen. (Dr.) John Brasso (R-WY)

Rob Bluey and Brandon Stewart, Heritage Foundation: Sen. John Barrasso earned the nickname “Wyoming’s Doctor” after working for 24 years as an orthopedic surgeon in Casper. Today he represents the state in the U.S. Senate and is one of the leading critics of Obamacare.

More than two decades with patients gave Barrasso a firsthand glimpse of government’s involvement in medicine — and that was before President Obama signed his unpopular health care law in 2009. Last week Barrasso visited Heritage to share his concerns about the doctor-patient relationship and other side effects of Obamacare.

“It seems every new regulation takes away from the time you get to spend with a patient because you’re filling out paperwork and forms,” Barrasso said in an interview with Heritage. “I don’t want anybody between a doctor and a patient — not an insurance company bureaucrat or a Washington bureaucrat.”

Barrasso made his opposition to Obamacare known long before the measure was signed into law. As the bill was being debated on Capitol Hill, Barrasso teamed with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), also a medical doctor, for the Senate Doctors Show. The biweekly broadcast became a forum to discuss health policy.

Two years later, as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments about the law beginning today, Barrasso hopes the justices will strike down Obamacare.

“The best outcome,” Barrasso said, “is that the court says the individual mandate — a mandate you must buy a government-approved product — is unconstitutional, and that they would also rule that because that part is unconstitutional, the entire law falls.”

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