Trump budget seeks savings through ObamaCare repeal

The White House budget for fiscal 2019 seeks major savings by repealing ObamaCare and endorsed a Senate GOP bill as the best way to do so.

“The Budget supports a two-part approach to repealing and replacing Obamacare, starting with enactment of legislation modeled closely after the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) bill as soon as possible,” the White House said in its budget request.

The legislation from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) would replace ObamaCare with a series of block grants to states.

The budget proposes over $90 billion in savings over 10 years if the policies in the Graham-Cassidy bill were enacted. Combined with other provisions like Medicaid changes, the White House projects there would be nearly $675 billion in savings over a decade tied to repealing ObamaCare.

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Advocacy groups were quick to denounce the proposal, which is unlikely to gain traction in Congress.

“By asking Congress to revive the deeply unpopular Graham-Cassidy repeal bill that ended protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, gutted Medicaid, ripped away coverage from millions, and raised costs for millions more, while also proposing drastic cuts to Medicare, Trump has chosen to ignore the American public’s overwhelming preference for a bipartisan path forward on health care,” said Protect Our Care campaign director Brad Woodhouse.

Republican leaders have signaled that they are not interested in diving back into the contentious ObamaCare repeal fight this year. The Senate last year failed to pass a repeal bill, and there is no indication that the votes have shifted since then.

A number of Republicans have even discussed taking bipartisan actions to stabilize ObamaCare markets and try to bring down premiums through actions such as funding known as reinsurance.

Graham has said he will continue fighting for his bill and is not completely alone. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is also calling for Congress to not give up on repeal this year.