Medicare turned 50 this year, and the program has been pretty darn popular throughout its life — it’s hard to see what candidates win by speaking out against it. Even Ben Carson, who for several years has talked about cutting Medicaid and Medicare, recently changed his tune. The most recent iteration of his plan doesn’t lose those programs, but would give people health savings accounts of $2,000 a year per person. Carson says this will be so much better than Medicaid and Medicare that people will voluntarily leave those programs. As The New York Times explained yesterday, the proposal is incredibly confusing and could easily cost more than existing programs.
