If you’ve spent even a small amount of time reading through the massive House Health Care Reform bill (H.R. 3200) you know the devil is in the details. You also know the deeper you dig the more devilish the details become… Take, for example, Sections 245, 431 and 1801 which, as CBS’ Declan McCullagh, notes would require the IRS to share your private tax information with the new Health Choices Commissioner:
One of the problems with any proposed law that’s over 1,000 pages long and constantly changing is that much deviltry can lie in the details. Take the Democrats’ proposal to rewrite health care policy, better known as H.R. 3200 or by opponents as “Obamacare.” (Here’s our CBS News television coverage.)
Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and “other information as is prescribed by” regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for “affordability credits.”
Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details — there’s no specified limit on what’s available or unavailable — to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify “affordability credits.”
Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a “low-income prescription drug subsidy” but has not applied for it.
Yikes, sec. 1801 is probably the most disturbing. Sections 245 and 431, at least require someone to apply for “affordability credits” before their tax information is shared with health care bureaucrats. Sec. 1801on the other hand gives the government the authority to simply grab everyone’s records and start searching through them, looking for Americans who may not realize they qualify for a “low-income prescription drug subsidy.”
Amazing, simply amazing… Democrats spent much of the last 8 years complaining about the Bush Administration’s alleged trampling of privacy rights and yet here they are proposing a far more direct trampling taxpayer’s privacy rights.
Ed Morrissey’s right, “… if they’re this cavalier about your privacy on tax records, just imagine what they’ll do with your health records.”
Related
- Obama’s Health Rationer-in-Chief – Wall Street Journal
- ‘Cruel and neglectful’ care of one million NHS patients exposed – Telegraph
- Markey: Medicare will take hit – The Coloradoan