Obama Medicare Administrator Andy Slavitt: ‘Graham, Cassidy, Heller the Most Significant Threat to Repeal ACA’

Former Obama Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Andy Slavitt, who helped implement the Affordable Care Act, said that the Graham-Cassidy bill remains the most significant opportunity to repeal Obamacare.

Breitbart News released an exclusive interview on Tuesday with former Senator Rick Santorum on how he continues to work with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on an Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan to block grant Obamacare to the states. The Graham-Cassidy plan would give Republican states the flexibility to draft alternative, more conservative health care plans that work better for their states.

Santorum declared to Breitbart News that the plan “will pass through the House and the Senate.”

Former Obama CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt, who was partly responsible for implementing Obamacare, admitted recently on Twitter that he believes this bill serves as the most significant threat to Obamacare’s survival.

Slavitt first cited an interview with Sen. Graham, in which Graham said, “Well, I think — Senator Cassidy is my chief cosponsor. I believe there’s 50 votes for this. I’m hoping to have 25 Republican governors come out the next couple of weeks for the block grant approach, taking all the money and power out of Washington and sending it back to the states.”

Citing Graham’s interview, Slavitt admitted, “Graham, Cassidy, Heller is the most significant threat to repeal ACA. Trump is bullying the Senate to take it up. 25 gov. plan is the way.”

Vox even said, “It’s the most radical one yet.”

Slavitt also suggested that the Graham-Cassidy bill “flies in the face of bipartisan efforts that Alexander-Murray are beginning or have been started in the House. If GCH appears easier than tax reform or helpful to it, it could make the ‘September agenda.”

Sens. Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and ranking member Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) will start drafting legislation starting in September that will “stabilize” Obamacare through insurance bailouts and subsidies to insurance companies.

If Republicans were to pass the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal bill, they could save up money that would make it easier for lawmakers to pass a more aggressive tax reform package. Graham revealed that “Lamar Alexander is going to allow hearing on our bill if we can put it together. There will be a tremendous amount of pressure on Republican leadership to take this up. I think Mitch will.”

Santorum told Breitbart News that the Graham-Cassidy plan becomes increasingly viable as a plan because the bill will continue to gain support from governors; governors, under this plan, would have the ability to craft a solution that works best for their state. Santorum explained, “We’re trying to get to the point where we can have 25 Republican governors on board with this and come out and say, ‘You need to pass this.’ This whole thing is being designed with and for the governors. Present it to Washington as a solution outside of Washington.”

Santorum argued that by taking the power to regulate health care out of Washington, his idea would also “put a stake in the heart of single-payer health care.”

“Now that every state will have their own health care system, no way will the government be able to take it back,” Santorum added.