Carson Sometimes Deviates From GOP Health Care Thought

ATLANTA (AP) -- Ben Carson rips the Obama administration's health care law as much as the next Republican presidential candidate. But the neurosurgeon-turned-politician's own ideas put him outside mainstream conservative thought.

Carson has said private insurers should be little more than "nonprofit service organizations," with government capping their profit margins. He says federal government could offer catastrophic care coverage -- paid for with taxes on insurers' profits.

He's called for government regulators to determine what providers can charge for care.

Early on as a candidate, he said he wanted to scrap Medicare and Medicaid, and spend the money on giving every American $2,000 a year for a health savings account. Later, he hedged and said Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries could choose whether they wanted the stipend or their existing government coverage.