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Yet another ugly aspect of the “Affordable Care Act” has come to light. People who read the legislative language understood at the outset that the if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor; if you like your plan, you can keep your plan promise was a lie. Others found out the hard way, when their health insurance policies were cancelled, and their doctors turned them away. Anyone with a rudimentary grasp of how markets work could have predicted that, notwithstanding promises to the contrary, service would suffer and costs would rise, as they have.
Now we see another ugly consequence of the ACA: the Internal Revenue Service is using confidential information taxpayers provide on tax returns to identify people who chose to pay the Obamacare penalty rather than enroll in an exchange or otherwise buy health insurance. IRS then provides the identities and contact information of these opt-outs to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which uses the information for “marketing outreach” (harassment?) to encourage (pressure?) these people to enroll in the government-mandated healthcare insurance coverage. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip Steve Scalise, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady have written to IRS Commissioner Koskinen objecting to this violation of taxpayer privacy, and asking questions about it.
