Dr. Ben Carson in 2009 (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

(The Root) — Rising Republican superstar Dr. Ben Carson slammed Obamacare in a speech on Friday, comparing it to one of the worst periods in U.S. history.

Speaking at the conservative Values Voter Summit on Friday, the famed neurosurgeon told delegates, "I have to tell you, Obamacare is, really, I think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery, and it is slavery in a way." Carson's speech received rousing applause, according to this video from the Washington Post. 

Carson, who has spoken on many conservative platforms and has criticized the health care law before, said that it was making Americans "subservient" and linked the law to socialism and communism. 

"It is making all of us subservient to the government, and it was never about health care, it was about control," he added. "That's why, when this adminstration took office, it didn't matter that the country was going off the cliff economically. All forces were directed toward getting this legislation passed. And why did they want to pass it so badly? Well, as I said the other night on television, Vladimir Lenin, one of the fathers of socialism and communism, said that socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a socialist state."