Dr. Ben Carson is a gifted neurosurgeon famous for his work separating conjoined twins, so it is easy for him to dissect the failing Affordable Care Act (Obamacare.) Carson knows Obamacare is a ‘looming disaster’ and wants to see our national health care change for the better.
We didn’t need the monstrosity of the $1.2 trillion Affordable Care Act. Even after it is fully implemented for 10 years, 23 million people still won’t have any health insurance.
So what’s Ben Carson’s health care proposal?
While attending a National Prayer Breakfast with Barack Obama, Carson told Obama here’s how you solve the health care crisis:
“Here’s my solution. When a person is born, give them a birth certificate, an electronic medical record and a health savings account to which money can be contributed pre-tax from the time you’re born to the time you die.”
He would use health savings accounts (HSAs), paid for with the very same dollars that pay for traditional health care. It would give people enormous flexibility to shift money within their family. HSAs will also drive down health care costs while protecting patient choice and freedom. That’ll take care of three-quarters of the American population.
How would he take care of the indigents? How do we take care of them now? Medicaid. He plans to craft something that works very well. He know a lot of Washington pundits would say, “Well, indigent people can’t manage a health savings account. They’re too stupid.” But they’re not too stupid. Somebody has a diabetic foot ulcer, they learn very quickly not to go to the emergency room where it costs five times more to take care of it. They go to the clinic. It’s a whole other level of savings which we are not achieving right now.
