-- Thehealth care system should have less government involvement, not more of it, Dr.Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who rose to national political prominencewith his criticism this year of the Affordable Care Act, said before a speakingengagement in Birmingham Thursday night.
Carson also criticized political correctness; he urged people to speaktheir minds.
"I'm hopeful that I can encourage people to be courageous and stand upfor what they believe in and not to submit to the forces of politicalcorrectness, the forces of secular progressivism that try to deprive people oftheir freedom of speech and freedom of thought and make them conform," he saidbefore a speech to the Alabama Policy Institute's annual Birmingham banquet atthe Cahaba Grand Conference Center.
Carson, a former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins,defined secular progressives as "the people who are trying to kick God out ofeverything and substitute their own philosophies as the code for what is moraland what is right."
He rose to prominence in conservative media in February, after he criticizedthe Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare -- during . At , he said he thought the law was "really Ithink the worst thing that has happened to this nation since slavery."
Thursday, Carson explained his solution to the nation's rising healthcare costs: A health savings account for every American beginning at birth,with the government contributing ,000 a year. One-third of that would be setaside for catastrophic health care, and the rest would be for routine medicalneeds. Carson said that would be more than enough for most people's routinemedical needs, and they would slowly build up a significant amount of money forhealth care costs.
"It's these kinds of things that you have to do because it removesgovernment rather than making it more important in our lives," he said. "Italso brings the relationship back to the physician and the patient."
Having complete control over the health care spending -- instead of goingthrough an insurance company -- would bring costs down because doctors wouldhave to make their prices far more apparent and would need to compete for patients,Carson said.
"It brings the whole medical industry into the free market economy," hesaid. "That's where you begin to see real efficiency."
Carson also discussed his support for a flat tax, or fair tax, in whichone tax rate is levied on everyone, regardless of income. The fact that it's proportionalmakes it fair, he said, because the government isn't deciding who should andwho shouldn't pay taxes; everyone would pay taxes. He compared it to tithes inthe Bible. When the government picks who should pay more, it's difficult forpeople to agree, he said.
"Proportionality is something that's very easy to agree on, I thinkthat's why God did it that way. He's a pretty smart guy," Carson said.
Cameron Smith, the vice president of the Alabama Policy Institute, saidthe conservative think tank brought Carson in because he shares its values:free markets, limited government and strong families. Smith said Carson, whogrew up in a difficult economic situation in Detroit, embodied the spirit ofopportunity.
"That's a positive story," he said. "Right now in politics and publicpolicy we see a lot of negative. We see a lot of 'this can't happen, this isn'tgood enough.' At the Alabama Policy Institute, we want to promote opportunity.Dr. Carson's story is one of opportunity."
API representatives said they expected around 1,400 people for thebanquet, which serves as a fundraiser for the think tank. Louisiana Gov. BobbyJindal at the organization's Huntsville banquet next week.
Carson, who's been touted as a possible presidential candidate by someconservatives, said his plan right now is to just travel the country and spreadhope.
"I think people are sleeping in the poppy fields right now, but they'restarting to wake up and see what's at stake," he said. "Whether I will ventureinto the political arena, it's not something that I particularly want to do,but I will see what happens. I will see what the Good Lord has in store."