Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Barrasso of Wyoming introduced legislation Tuesday that would allow states to "opt out" of the law's requirements that individuals must buy insurance, large companies must provide it and states need to expand Medicaid.

Those three provisions are among the most controversial elements of the law.

Graham said his goal in introducing the legislation is to take down the entire health reform law.

"If you take half the states out of the individual mandate, this [health reform] bill falls," he said. "Quite frankly, that's the goal."

He suggested that he would try to force a vote on the bill every time they "vote on naming a post office."

Barrasso and Graham said the new legislation would force the health debate from Washington to the state level, where some governors or state leaders are nervous about the cost of expanding the Medicaid program.