Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson this week released his healthcare platform, a plan for reform that he said would fix the relationship between physician and patient by providing tax-sheltered accounts and giving Medicare patients the onus to buy their own plans.
"As decision-making moves further away from patients and providers, the medical outcomes become less effective," Carson said on his campaign website.
The Affordable Care Act has upended the patient-doctor relationship, he claims, restricting healthcare options and access to doctors and specialists. As a result, patients face exorbitant increases in premiums, deductibles and copays, less access to the doctors and fewer healthcare plans to choose from, he said.
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His idea is for patients to carry Health Empowerment Accounts, which would be opened for every citizen at birth. The tax-sheltered accounts would be paired with high-deductible major medical insurance. Routine costs could be covered from the accounts, which would build up balances with time.
Carson also wants to restructure Medicare to give beneficiaries with a fixed payment for a private insurance plan of their choice. Democrats have derided this plan as a voucher system that would shift costs to retirees, according to the Associated Press.
Under Carson's plan, Medicare beneficiaries would also be able to take part in the tax-sheltered health accounts. He would raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 70, gradually by two months each year.
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Carson's overhaul for Medicaid has the federal government providing funding to states to pay private insurance premiums and set up health accounts for beneficiaries.
"Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries face a two-tiered healthcare system," he said, "as many doctors can no longer afford to participate; meanwhile, both programs are unsustainable."
Carson said the personal accounts would promote patient choice and foster competition among private insurers.
The plan would produce savings by cutting government and private healthcare spending, according to Carson, but no specifics on cost were given in the plan.
Carson has slid in the polls to third, behind GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is now polling in second place.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse