Heritage Foundation president: GOP healthcare plan won’t pass ‘without improvements’

Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint said Sunday the Republican healthcare proposal will not pass Congress “without improvements.” 

DeMint, a former Republican senator from South Carolina, told CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper that President Trump is open to improvements.

“He’s very engaged and very open to improve the bill, but he’s very supportive of the idea of getting this repeal through,” DeMint said.

{mosads}“The first part of every conversation you have with him is how destructive ObamaCare has been to our healthcare system, so he’s ready for listen to improvements … but he’s very supportive of getting this bill through,” he added.

DeMint said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month that the notion that ObamaCare can’t be repealed without a replacement plan is “absolutely ludicrous.”

“Folks, the excuse that we are hearing that we can’t repeal ObamaCare until we replace it is absolutely ludicrous. Before ObamaCare, America had the best healthcare system in the world,” DeMint said at the conference. “ObamaCare has become a cancer on hour healthcare system. We don’t need to replace the healthcare system, we need to remove the cancer. That’s what we need to do right now.”

Heritage Action, an advocacy group associated with the Heritage Foundation, initially slammed the GOP bill earlier this month, saying the proposal is “bad politics and, more importantly, bad policy.”