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Posted on 09/03/2009 6:23:22 AM PDT by FromLori
There's been a lot of discussion about the new and powerful federal agencies that would be created by the passage of a national health care bill. The Health Choices Administration, the Health Benefits Advisory Committee, the Health Insurance Exchange — there are dozens in all.
But if the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Democrats' health care proposals, the already powerful — and already feared — IRS would wield even more power and extend its reach even farther into the lives of ordinary Americans, and the presidentially-appointed head of the new health care bureaucracy would have access to confidential IRS information about millions of individual taxpayers.
In short, health care reform, as currently envisioned by Democratic leaders, would be built on the foundation of an expanded and more intrusive IRS.
Under the various proposals now on the table, the IRS would become the main agency for determining who has an "acceptable" health insurance plan; for finding and punishing those who don't have such a plan; for subsidizing individual health insurance costs through the issuance of a tax credits; and for enforcing the rules on those who attempt to opt out, abuse, or game the system. A substantial portion of H.R. 3200, the House health care bill, is devoted to amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in order to give the IRS the authority to perform these new duties.
The Democrats' plan would require all Americans to have "acceptable" insurance coverage (the legislation includes long and complex definitions of "acceptable") and would designate the IRS as the agency charged with enforcing that requirement. On your yearly 1040 tax return, you would be required to attest that you have "acceptable" coverage. Of course, you might be lying, or simply confused about whether or not you are covered, so the IRS would need a way to check your claim for accuracy. Under current plans, insurers would be required to submit to the IRS something like the 1099 form in which taxpayers report outside income. The IRS would then check the information it receives from the insurers against what you have submitted on your tax form.
If it all matches up, you're fine. If it doesn't, you will hear from the IRS. And if you don't have "acceptable" coverage, you will be subject to substantial fines — fines that will be administered by the IRS.
Under some versions of health reform now circulating on Capitol Hill, the IRS would also be intimately involved in how you pay for insurance. Everyone would be required to buy coverage. The millions of Americans who can't afford it would receive a subsidy to pay for it. Under the version of the plan currently under negotiation in the Senate Finance Committee, that subsidy would come through the IRS in the form of a refundable tax credit. Under the House plan, the subsidy would come directly from the Health Choices Administration.
In either scenario, the IRS would be the key to making the system work. Before you could receive any subsidy, whether through the IRS or not, the Health Choices Administration would have to determine whether you are eligible for it. To do so, the bills under consideration would give the Health Choices Commissioner the authority to demand sensitive, confidential information from the IRS about individual taxpayers. The IRS would have to provide it.
Under current law, it is a felony for a government official to release taxpayer information in all but the most limited of circumstances. One such exception is for law enforcement; the IRS is allowed to give taxpayer information to prosecutors in criminal cases. The information can also, in some instances, be released to the Social Security Administration and the Veterans' Administration for the determination of benefits. The health care bills would change the Internal Revenue Code to permit the IRS to give similar information to the vast, new health care bureaucracy.
That means the personal tax information of millions of Americans would enter the system whether they want it to or not. "There's a mandate to buy insurance," says one Republican House aide. "You have to buy it. You have millions of people who can't buy it without a subsidy, so they will have no choice but to accept the subsidy in order to buy insurance, and then the Health Choices Commissioner will have access to their tax records." "How many hands would this information go through?" asks a GOP source in the Senate. "What are the quality controls? This increases the risk of misusing this information."
Some versions of the bill even permit the release of confidential taxpayer information for decidedly less pressing reasons. In H.R. 3200, the IRS would be required to provide taxpayer information to the Social Security Administration for the purpose of helping Social Security officials find qualifying seniors who can then be encouraged to enroll in the prescription drug program. "There is no precedent for using taxpayer information for the purpose of identifying people to go out and advertise to them," says the House expert.
So far, there has been little substantive public debate about the integral role of the IRS in nearly every aspect of the various national health care proposals. But people who are closely involved with the process are deeply concerned about what they view as a massive, and in some senses unprecedented, expansion of the Internal Revenue Service.
First, they wonder whether the IRS can handle the new demands. "There is a sense at the IRS that their purpose is to collect revenue and not to implement all sorts of other programs," says a second Senate GOP aide. "Also, the IRS isn't necessarily great at doing what it does already. How is it going to determine whether 300 million people have health insurance?"
Second, they are concerned about anticipated abuse of the system. "You're going to have lots of fraud," says the House source. "People claiming lots of affordability credits or refundable tax credits. The IRS is not going to have the resources and expertise to police this stuff." Finally, there is a third concern, more fundamental than questions of whether the IRS can handle the job: Should the IRS be involved in health care enforcement in the first place? As seen in the town halls across the country in August, many Americans are concerned about the coercive nature of the proposed national health care system. Handing the IRS the power to monitor every American's place in the system worries them even more. Backers of the Democratic bills are betting that the handouts involved — giving people money to buy health insurance — will outweigh concerns about privacy and coercive government. Perhaps. But before Congress makes any decision on national health care, voters should know just what it will involve.
Fine week for Rush to take off. We need to get this out!
almost every agency and special interest supported by the feds will get money from healthcare....there is no way this will be more affordable than insurance. they are signing away the future of this country and there will be no going back....it will kill the contitution....which they are clearly violating.
Thank in part Rangel for this. He was the one that put this crap in the bill ... and you notice that Pelosi is letting him off scott-free! How convenient for Rangel to identify his oversights on over 50% of his income each year for 5 years just before the Dems cram this healthcare bill down our throats that include soooo many items that have NO business in the bill to begin with. Get the bill down to no more than 5 pages; let’s start by scrapping this proposed bill!
actually what will happen is a National Health Card will be issued, and this card will be an ID card for everything in your life...
Don’t pay your taxes then “no soup for you” or rather hips, heart valves, stents, hemodialysis or earwax removal for you.
You mean like the Troika Card?
http://bluelori.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-this-replace-your-social-security.html
Coercing American citizens into entering a contract violates the 13th Amendment.
The real reason that the IRS is in the org charts is that government healthcare will be taxable as ordinary income.
Bank on it.
I suppose they might have some time left over to go after Obamacare payments, nonpayments, fraudulent intent to not make payments, etc.
What is up here isn't what it seems to be, but it was quite obvious to the folks who wrote the legislation, or to anyone who has ever had to collect a bill FOR the federal government.
The difficulty is the proper vehicle for any federal government agency to use to collect a debt is to first exhaust administrative due process ~ something that takes about 5 minutes in a long phone call. Then, we move on to using the federal court system to order payment.
That'll get you on the tailend of a 2 year long docket with the federal court ~ behind IRS and every other agency that's filed ahead of you.
Yup, there's that much business out there.
A private (nonprofit and for profit health insurance organizations are considered "private") or state run medical organization (insurance, hospital, doctor-owned co-op, etc.) has access to State and municipal courts for the purpose of initiating collection! Plus, they can "cut you off" (to the limits allowed by federal law regarding emergency care situations).
The federal government agency to be created to run/operate/harrass this system does not have access to state or municipal courts. Plus, the legislation here doesn't allow them to simply halt service to the debtor.
Frankly, the use of IRS not terribly wise. They have taxes to collect, and if auditing medical decisions is to be added to the mix, it's just a matter of time until you'll have IRS agents reviewing decisions to remove colons instead of figuring out how to bust rich people for evading billions of dollars in taxes.
More appropriate might be to simply hand this enforcement envelope to BATF ~ now that'd get some attention ~ they'd be burning down hospitals and shooting the patients as they leaped from windows Fur Shur ~ but they'd make sure they paid their bills next time!
We need to eliminate the IRS, not make them bigger.
So, Charley Rangel wrote this up? And with him facing substantial audits by IRS as far as the eye can see, .......
Well, that answers that.
I’m not sure what the troika card represents, and it’s not really needed as a visual.
However I know alot about these types of cards.
I worked for a company as an intern for a short bit that specializes in this.
You take the American Express ExpressPay, similar to MasterCard PayPass, with RFID technology, add one layer of double blind encryption, and several layers of encryption to seperate financial and health, and criminal and security clearance and whatever else is added, and you then have what has been explained a the new USA national ID card.
In Spain they use a card very similar. Chinese military have implemented something similar using the older AMerican Express Blue chip on a card system without the RFID.
THe problem on the technology side is anyone with a reader can scan the cards.
THere is a quote from Atlas Shrugged from Ragnar about how the only honest men are those who work for cash in the night. Highly appropriate here.
You mean like the Health Card that Canadians use?
“More appropriate might be to simply hand this enforcement envelope to BATF ~ now that’d get some attention ~ they’d be burning down hospitals and shooting the patients as they leaped from windows Fur Shur ~ but they’d make sure they paid their bills next time!”
- One of the most bizarre things I have ever heard was when a defecting Scientology member leaped out of a hospital window with a 20 dollar bills grasped in both hands. Needless to say, he preferred death over the clutches of the Enemy.
“Patrick Vic, whose income was modest, was torn between his desire to spend money on Scientology and the need to provide for his family. He could not find any solution except suicide, says Jean-Pierre Jouglas, a UNADFI attorney (I). “ Patrick Vic’s wife brought the complaint. Following this event, 38 more people filed civil cases. Yet astonishingly, when the investigation was complete, only seven victims remained; the rest had withdrawn their complaints.”
http://www.anti-scientologie.ch/belgium-charges.htm
ATTENTION FELLOW TEXANS:
Governor Rick Perry may invoke the 10th Amendment over Obama’s health care bill (Vanity)
7/23/09 | Cowtowney
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2299225/posts?q=1&;page=51
Get after Perry, Texans. Burn up his switch board and fax!
Let him know we don’t want Obama DeathCare.
Say no to Obama’s DeathCare.
Send a message; DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS healthcare!
No! NO you don’t, you muzzie pos. You’re not denying our seniors deserved health care while insuring millions of illegal aliens and while Demorats are REJECTING Obamacare for themselves and their families!
Join organizations who fight ObamaCare.
This is a good organization:
The Alliance of Texans Against Government Controlled Healthcare:
http://www.notintexas.org/
office (972) 466-2915
fax (972) 466-2965
toll-free (866) 377-1300
From the website:
We are currently contacting Governor Rick Perry by fax and mail!
We have made it easy for you to help. Click here to display the letter and contact information.
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_rick_perry.htm
Petition to STOP government controlled healthcare in Texas
Read and sign the petition
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_to_Reps.htm
Print and sign the letter
(feel free to make changes if you wish)
Fax the letter to the fax numbers
Mail a hard copy to the addresses
Call their offices
Dear Governor Perry,
On March 30, 2009 the Texas House of Representatives passed HCR 50 affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.
You have publicly supported this bill, and stated that attorney generals from all over the union could be getting ready to sue the US Government.
We are asking you to take the lead.
We are asking you to order the Texas Attorney General to publicly begin working on a law suit under Article IV, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.
We are asking you to protect the citizens of Texas that we will not stand for government controlled healthcare in our state.
Under your leadership we can effectively kill the proposal of this administration and allow Texas to be a state free from socialism and collectivism.
Be the voice of reason in the national debate and allow Texans the ability to solve the problems of our state.
Thank you,
(Signature Date)
Lookup your state representatives
FREE FAX SERVICSES:
http://www.gotfreefax.com/
http://faxzero.com/
or google ‘free fax’
Contacting Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849
Washington Office:
122 C St., NW, Ste. 200
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 638-3927
Fax: (202) 628-1943
Contact Budget Planning and Policy
Address:1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975
Gregory S. Davidson
Constituent Communication Division Director and
Executive Clerk to the Governor
Phone: (512) 463-1873
Office of the General Counsel
Department Mailing Address
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
Phone: 512.463.2000
Fax: 512.463.1932
Press Secretary
Allison Castle, Press Secretary
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1826
Fax: (512) 463-1847
Contact Texas Health Care Policy Council
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975
Sign up. Become a member.
Sign petition against Obamacare!
See member interview with Cavuto!
____________________
From Texans Against Government Controlled Health Care
Facts about the 10th Amendment:
The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution’s principle of Federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.
HCR 50 HAS PASSED THE HOUSE 99-36!
Affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.
Take Action! Before it is too late!
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