Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said, “the government would provide the money for the indigent in their HSA” under his plan to repeal Obamacare and replace it with health savings accounts (HSAs) on Friday’s “Larry Kudlow Show.”
Carson was asked about his support for health savings accounts, “and if need be, having the government distribute them to poor people, so they can hold onto them for the rest of their life. Is that still your view? Health savings accounts to replace Obamacare.” Carson responded, “Absolutely, because it puts the care and the responsibility back in the hands of patients and healthcare providers. And it’s not that complex. You know, making a health savings account available to Americans from the day they’re born until they die, using the exact same dollars that we use now. We wouldn’t to use as many of them. And giving people the ability to shift money within their HSA between family members, which gives you enormous flexibility. And because nothing’s coming out of your catastrophic insurance, the cost of that drops dramatically, you make it possible to buy that across state lines. That’ll take care of the majority of Americans.”
He continued, “But it doesn’t take care of the indigent. And, you know, we take care of them now through Medicaid.” Carson then argued that one could buy “a concierge practice” with the money that is spent per-person under Medicaid, and that his plan would teach people responsibility.
Carson added, “Well, the fact of the matter is, that the government would provide the money for the indigent in their HSA. No question about that. But, our overall goal is to get them out of a position where they need to have somebody else doing it.”
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