Ben Carson proposes healthcare overhaul to increase Medicare age to 70

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Ben Carson sought to reinvigorate his presidential campaign late on Wednesday by rolling out a proposed healthcare overhaul that would eventually increase the Medicare eligibility age to 70.

The Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon appeared confident before a crowd of 250 at Eastern Michigan University, speaking on a subject he has drawn a national following for: healthcare. Carson, a native of nearby Detroit, rallied the crowd around his plan that would repeal Obamacare, one of the few lines that drew applause in his nearly hourlong remarks.

“We don’t want a bunch of bureaucrats dictating to people what they ought to do,” Carson said in his deadpan delivery.

The main feature of his proposal is the expansion of tax-free health empowerment accounts (HEAs), which would be paired with high-deductible major medical coverage.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/10/ben-carson-medicare-healthcare-proposal

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Ryan Felton in Ypsilanti, Michigan
Thursday 10 December 2015 15.36 GMT

[upaloopa]

1. He will never be President

[mpcamb]

23. Not if anybody in the 60-69 age bracket is allowed to vote.

[montanacowboy]

2. Yep, that's the ticket Idiot

work till you are 70 and then get some kind of shit program where you pay high deductibles on your measly SS check

Whoa! winning strategy. Just STFU and go home.

[mpcamb]

24. "a crowd of 250 at Eastern Michigan University" Student Population 23,0000

Not much to worry about here...

[VanillaRhapsody]

3. He sure as hell wants the govt to dictate WHEN I can retire...

[immoderate]

4. I said it before, and I'll say it again. Ben Carson is a wacko.

--imm

[cstanleytech]

6. You don't have to say it. He demonstrates that on a regular basis all on his own.

[immoderate]

10. Heh-heh! I know I don't HAVE to, but when I type "Ben" into the title of a post...

So many versions of "Ben is a wacko" automatically appear from my cache, that I'm only a Tab key away from adding to history. It's way too easy.

Now, don't go givin' away my secrets.

--imm

[PersonNumber503602]

17. Yet there are still people who support him.

It really baffles my mind how clueless some people are. And when you try to dig into their rational, they usually resort to spouting simple talking points or making untrue statements. Then when those are confronted they jump to weird conspiracies or shutdown.

[immoderate]

21. Those I usually call 'true believers.' Ben agrees with their nonsense.

Things that people believe go far beyond logic and reason. Some of it has to do with indoctrination, some has to do with the structures of their brains. Or combinations thereof.

I belong to a group that meets socially, and has a good deal of political diversity. There are some climate deniers. Some are even pretty smart. They use their 'intellects' to reinforce their denial. Some ultimately defer to personal incredulity: "yes, I know that CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, and I know it's increased, but I just can't believe that would warm the planet."

That's psychology. And BTW, 'wacko' is not a diagnosis. I have no way of knowing the state of Dr. Carson's mental health. But he is a wacko!

--imm

[JoePhilly]

5. My mother died right after turning 70.

She had cancer at 62.

FU Ben.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. When a hospital costs over $1,000 AN HOUR

those little savings accounts aren't going to go very far.

I had a friend who spent 1 nite for chest pain observation and a few tests and his bill was $13,000. It 2 as an anxiety attack. A real heart attack probably would have been $75,000.

No one can afford that. Your whole retirement money would be gone in a couple of days.

[groundloop]

8. Forcing people to work 'til 70 will certainly help the economic situation (of the rich)

I simply can't imagine someone who makes a living as a construction worker, plumber, electrician, or any other trade that involves large amounts of manual labor being able to carry on until age 70. What Carson (and all the other GOPers who support Medicare and Social Security 'overhauls') are really saying is 'be nice, productive working class people and make us more and more wealthy'.

[marew]

16. My thoughts exactly!

The greed of the GOP is exploding a bit more every day. The ultra wealthy among us want even more tax breaks. Just like refusing to renew health care for 9/11 first responders- I cannot comprehend this at all.
I'm a senior and never thought we would go backwards in our care and concern for all other creatures but we are. I am truly glad I am no longer young as I suspect things will get a lot worse before things ever get better.

[procon]

9. I would be dead if I had to wait for Medicare until I was 70

So would my ex, two brothers, a sister, sister in law, and so many of my relatives and friends that have major medical problems.

We're living longer not because we are physically in better shape than our parents, but through the advances in chemistry that offers us life sustaining drugs, and better nutrition. We enjoy a better standard of living, and the access to preventative medical care and treatment, andwe can get the assistance and equipment that allows seniors to remain independent and stay at home for as long as possible.

[Matthew28]

11. Evil

Ben Carson and his entire party are evil and hate the old. The old that worked 40 or 50 years of their lives to earn the right to be on ssi and medicare. Talk about slapping the working in the face.

[SmittynMo]

12. Grade of F- ?

Now I know why he got an F-.

What a moron.

[PatSeg]

13. Does he know

who his supporters are? They usually are the ones who yell, "Hands off my Medicare!"

[Matthew28]

14. His supporters are the ones

that live out in the sticks and demand that government stay completely out of their lives. BUT, on the otherhand demand abortion to be regulated, massive nation state building wars and a wall across our southern border...They're insane.

[PatSeg]

22. And

when THEY collect unemployment or Social Security, THEY are entitled because they earned it. They just want what they want and everyone else be damned.

[olddots]

15. Dr. heal thy self

and while you're at it fuck thy self .

[Docreed2003]

28. Lmao...I snorted at that...

Thanks!

[Javaman]

18. someone really needs to interview some of his former patients...

no one with his level if heartless stupidity could be the "genius neurosurgeon" people claim him to me.

[Kingofalldems]

19. Why not 80 then?

Or just have a funeral expense plan.

[yellowcanine]

20. Says the person who probably has had excellent medical insurance all his life.

But let the peons have medical savings accounts and high deductibles. Yeah, that's the ticket.

How are you going to contribute to a medical savings account if you have a minimum wage job or you are living on Social Security at 65?

[MisterP]

25. to be fair, that's like "53" in non-anesthetic-huffer years

[valerief]

26. So he's going for the senior dementia vote, huh? nt

[dflprincess]

27. health empowerment accounts???

Because when you're barely scraping by you can afford to put money into one of these (as well as your retirement fund).

[RobinA]

30. It Always Amazes

me the utter out of touchness of politicians who suggest medical savings accounts of some ilk. Listen up, fools. Most people in the real world don't make enough to put any useful amount in a medical savings account. I also bet they've never seen an actual medical bill for something even somewhat major. Even people with extremely decent paying jobs are not going to be able to save enough to pay the bill for something serious. And don't tell me employer contribution. They damn sure aren't going to add enough to come close to paying for anything significant.

[haele]

32. Currently, HSAs - the "health empowerment accounts" available have a max input per year

Mine is $7750 for me and any dependents I have that the IRS recognize, because I'm over 55. The max is $6750 for a family. Dependent household doesn't count.
The only people who can use it are dependents of mine that the IRS recognizes; if I wanted to start an account for my unemployed daughter and the grand-daughter we took guardianship for to get on our insurance because my seriously bi-polar daughter can't afford the Covered CA policy and isn't eligible for Medicaid, they would have to get off my insurance.

What I'm going to have to do is try to save up some money so that when she turns 26 (two more years), we can start an HSA for her and seed some funds so that even if she can't do more than put $10 or $20 a month in it, she can star paying for her own medical co-pays and hope the interest accrual will be able to maintain most of the principle for a while until she can get her act together, because she won't be able to use our HSA card any more. I'm hoping to be able to get $2K saved for that, but with the increasing cost of pre-school/kindergarten, food, and basic utilities, I'm not sure I can even get that much saved for her.

And if she suddenly decides she wants to do her own taxes over the next two years, she loses use of the account; there's no way in hell she can come up with potential $2000 personal deductible to cover all the co-pays that she is required to pay under my insurance (basically, until Laz's medical costs push us all over the family deductible in mid-May).

These rules linking private insurance policies and health care products to IRS tax status (vice something like Social Security status) suck. And I don't see that the GOP is going to change the use conditions or tax implications for any "health empowerment account" that they think they're going to come up with to compete with the current ACA - or even Single Payer.

Haele

[area51]

29. STFU, Carson.

[hamsterjill]

31. As usual, a rich asshole who is totally out of touch with ordinary Americans.

I'm so sick of these idiots who think everyone has money for a savings account of ANY kind!

I'm in my late 50's and frankly, I don't know how I'm going to make it to Medicare age as it is right now, much less have it raised to 70. I work for a small business and my insurance premium (I'm the only employee) more than doubled when it was renewed this month.

I've worked all my life and by God, Ben Freakin' Carson, or not - those of us who have done that deserve something for having played by the God-damn rules! People who would actually vote for Carson make me furious because they obviously don't give a damn about the rest of us.

[EndElectoral]

33. How about a real medicare issue. Lower Medigap premiums.