Carson Health Reform Plan Released

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson released details of his health reform proposal yesterday.

Ben Carson pitches repealing Obamacare, raising Medicare eligibility age in health reform plan

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson unveiled a broad outline Wednesday to reform health care in the United States, calling for the repeal of President Obama's signature health-care law while detailing a restructuring of Medicare that would raise the eligibility age to 70.

The retired neurosurgeon's proposal rests on tax-protected “health empowerment accounts” — a de facto expansion of health savings accounts, which in Carson's vision would be opened for each citizen upon birth and grow over time based on individual contributions. Those accounts would be paired with high-deductible "catastrophic" medical coverage to cover patients facing significant and unexpected health problems.

Carson has characterized the plan as a "market-based solution" that will incentivize competition among insurers and give individual consumers greater flexibility in choosing their health providers. The policy proposal published by Carson's campaign Wednesday did not include budget estimates and did not outline the potential economic impacts of such an approach. Health care remains one of the largest and most complicated components of the nation's economy.

The full article provides additional details, and the Carson campaign has a 10-page summary of the plan available here.