Democrats have painted the American Healthcare Act as a nightmare following a damaging Congressional Business Office report Wednesday, but Sen. John Barrasso Thursday said the real "nightmare itself is Obamacare."
"Why are we trying to write a new healthcare law?" the Wyoming Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program. "This isn't a replacement, it's a rescue for what's happening around the country."
The CBO, he continued, has a "credibility gap" and has been wrong often about Obamacare.
"What we know is that the last four years, insurance premiums under Obamacare have doubled in the 30 states where they just have the Obamacare exchange," said Barrasso.
"Just yesterday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City has pulled out of Missouri and Kansas. There are people there who have no options to buy health insurance at all."
Barrasso said in his own state, there is only one insurer on the healthcare exchanges, and there are "places around the country where nobody is selling because it's such a bad deal that few people are buying."
The Senate, while working on its version of the bill, will look for ways to lower premiums, as that's the major concern with the healthcare law, Barrasso said.
"We also need to protect people with pre-existing conditions, and we're working on that," the senator said. "This is a rescue operation for the people who have been caught in the collapsing Obamacare exchanges. We need to provide something so that they can actually get insurance."
The Senate is also working to deal with estimates that show the cost of healthcare premiums skyrocketing for older Americans, if the AHCA passses, said Barrasso.
"We want people to have affordable care so they can get the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs," he said.
"What we've been seeing with Obamacare is people can't keep their doctor, can't keep their insurance plan. We need something that was better than it was before Obamacare was passed."