A doctor and former member of Congress is giving his diagnosis of the current healthcare debate on Capitol Hill.

Family physician Paul Broun represented Georgia's 10th District from 2007-2015. He says the American Health Care Act (AHCA) from House GOP leadership was an awful bill.

"It did not repeal ObamaCare, it just amended it – and it created a whole lot more government-directed healthcare in this country" Broun tells OneNewsNow. "It created a new entitlement program through what's known as refundable tax credits; it would not lower the cost of health insurance; and in fact, the [Congressional Budget Office] said that health insurance would continue to go up in spite of this."

Broun adds that the American Health Care Act wasn't what Republicans have promised voters since 2010 when ObamaCare became law.

"I'm glad that [AHCA] went down," he continues. "In fact, I did everything that I could to get people all over this country to call their congressman to ask their congressman to vote no."

During the 113th Congress, Broun introduced a bill called the OPTION Act. He's hoping someone reintroduces the measure, makes it their own, and runs with it.

"It's H.R. 2900," he explains. "It's the only bill that I know of that will truly lower the cost of ... all goods and services in the healthcare industry for everybody, and that's the kind of policy we need to put in place."

Twila Brase, R.N. and president of Citizens' Council for Health Freedom, believes Broun's bill was truly a "get the government out of healthcare" bill.

"As a matter of fact, it dismantled the Medicare administration within ten years and moved everything back to the states," she continues. "So it's not like there aren't people who are actually thinking in this direction."

According to Broun, the reason that every good and service in the healthcare industry is so expensive is because of the mandates that have been put on the system by the federal government.

"That's mostly through legislation that is passed, but also the policy-setting and the price-setting that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put on all providers," Dr. Broun says. "The private insurers follow the policies and prices that are set by CMS, so we've got to get the federal government out of setting policy, get the mandates off the system, and allow the free market to work."

What's keeping the federal government from getting out of healthcare? According to Broun, there are a lot of factors.

"Unfortunately, most members of Congress – even in the Republican Party – act as if government needs to solve all problems that we have within all human endeavor in this country," he adds. "We've got to go back to the idea of limited powers, enumerated powers as the U.S. Constitution is meant to control the federal government."

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and other members of House GOP leadership believe the American Health Care Act is a good bill. Speaker Ryan has called it the boldest and most conservative healthcare legislation to come before Congress in decades. House Republicans in favor of the measure say it dismantles ObamaCare taxes, eliminates the individual and employer mandate penalties, and prohibits health insurers from denying coverage, among other things.