Ben Carson Wants To Abolish Medicare, Medicaid Welfare? 2016 GOP Candidate Says ‘That’s Propaganda’

Ben Carson’s medicaid plans have some critics claiming that the 2016 GOP candidate wants to get rid of the popular welfare programs. But Carson is calling those critics out, claiming they are merely spouting “propaganda.”

In a related report by the Inquisitr, Ben Carson’s violent history as a youth came out during a recent interview with Meet The Press. He admits to trying to assault people, and even committed a stabbing. Carson says those days are well behind him, but the source for this amazing change in the teenage Carson goes back to his beliefs as a Seventh Day Adventist. But some critics claim he is not “authentic” in his religious beliefs due to his opposition to gun control laws.

Carson also believes his critics are purposefully misinterpreting him on other key points. For example, Politico reported that the retired neurosurgeon wanted to “abolish” Medicare and Medicaid even though the Republican Party platform, which says the party “is committed to saving Medicare and Medicaid.”

In the past, Carson addressed concerns that he wanted to get rid of government welfare programs.

“I’m not interested in getting rid of the safety net,” he said, according to Politifact. “I’m interested in getting rid of dependency, and I want us to find a way to allow people to excel in our society, and as more and more people hear that message, they will recognize who is truly on their side and who is trying to keep them suppressed and cultivate their votes.”

In the end, Politifact ruled that critics left out “important details and [took] things out of context,” noting that Carson “intends to maintain programs public safety nets for people who need them.”

Carson has also claimed critics are saying “you can’t give poor people a health savings account because they’re too stupid,” but the Republican candidate believes differently. Carson does say he wants Obamacare repealed, and instead wants to implement a different type of self-moderated health planning system.

“I have suggested that we provide the ability for anyone to have a health savings account from the day they are born until the day they die,” he said. “We’ll pay for it with the same dollars that we pay for traditional health care with. When people are able to see how much more freedom they will have, and how much more flexibility they will have, and how much more choice they would have, I think it’s going to be a no-brainer.”

Fast forward to the recent Meet The Press interview, and Carson found himself interrupting Chuck Todd after it was suggested that Carson wanted to “get rid of Medicare” in favor of a plan where the “government would give you $2,000 a year.”

“First of all, what I have said is that the system that I would put in place would largely negate the need for Medicare or for Medicaid. So I’m not talking about getting rid of those programs. And the way that I generally see things, entitlement programs, et cetera, is we create a mechanism that allows people to ascend the ladder of success to the extent that they don’t need those programs anymore. That’s what I’m talking about. Now, people will always try to reinterpret that to say, ‘Carson wants to get rid of this. He wants to get rid of that. And he wants to leave all these people in a terrible situation.’ That’s propaganda.”

In describing his health care plan, Carson says he wants a flexible health savings account which allows family members to shift money around in order to help each other. Carson believes this approach will give “enormous flexibility without a middleman,” although he admits “it doesn’t take care of catastrophic health care.” But he says people would purchase catastrophic health insurance, and “it’s going to cost you a lot less now because the vast majority of things are coming out of your HSA.”

“So the only thing coming out of your catastrophic insurance is real catastrophic health care,” he explained. “It’s sort of like having a homeowner’s policy with a big deductible versus a homeowner’s policy where you want every scratch covered. Two completely different animals.”

At the same time, the GOP candidate also says the “money from Medicaid” is going to be reallocated by the government in order to “to take care of those health savings accounts.”

What do you think about Ben Carson’s Medicaid plans?