The United States cannot achieve a sustainable health care system without shifting control from Washington to individuals, arguing that the current structure of the Affordable Care Act continues to burden families with rising costs and expanded government power, according to Dr. Ben Carson on Newsmax Sunday.
“Well, I’m very glad that we’re talking about it, that we’re focusing on it, because what’s more important than your health?” Carson, now the national advisor for Nutrition, Health, and Housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), told Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda.”
“Whoever controls your healthcare controls you,” he said, adding “That’s why Marxists say the beginning point of socialism is socialized medicine.
“Obamacare is leading us in that direction.”
Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, said that the Affordable Care Act moved the country closer to what he views as a government-dominated model of medical care.
He reiterated his long-held argument that centralized control over health care leads to excessive bureaucracy and diminished personal freedom.
But discussions under President Donald Trump’s renewed push for more affordable health care are “encouraging,” said Carson, adding that any effort to reform the system must put patients, not the federal government, at the center of decision-making.
Carson pointed to the nation’s high per-capita spending compared with other countries, arguing that Americans should be able to purchase more flexible and affordable coverage if they had greater control over their own health-care dollars.
Health savings accounts, he said, should form the core of a restructured system.
He also said allowing family members to move funds among their health savings accounts could help households cover medical expenses without relying on federal subsidies or heavily regulated insurance plans.
“Families become their own insurance companies that way,” Carson said, adding that accounts could be passed on to future generations to build long-term financial security for medical needs.
The accounts could grow large enough over time that many families “almost wouldn’t need anything else,” said Carson, noting that separate, low-cost plans could be available to cover catastrophic events.
He argued that such an approach would better match people with the coverage they need and curb premium spikes that, in his view, stem from federal mandates.
Carson also criticized the long-term cost of extending enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, citing recent projections that continuing them would cost $1.5 trillion.
“It’s unsustainable,” he said.
He added that although many Americans value the subsidies once they receive them, lawmakers must acknowledge the long-term fiscal impact.
He called for forming a bipartisan commission to establish shared goals for improving the system based on data rather than politics.
“We need to put together an all-star commission,” Carson said. “It can be bipartisan; put the facts on the table and determine what the goals are, and then work together to reach those goals using the facts.”
The interview also revisited earlier promises made when the Affordable Care Act was implemented, including assurances from former President Barack Obama that Americans who liked their plans or doctors would be able to keep them.
Carson said the cancellation of millions of private plans in the years that followed reflected broader structural issues.
He concluded by saying that without a shift away from bureaucracy and toward personal choice, health-care costs will continue to climb and limit Americans’ options in the long run.
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