Thursday, May 16, 2013

The IRS Scandal and Obamacare, Part II: Your "Shared Responsibility Payment for Not Maintaining Minimum Essential Coverage"

Jeff Taylor, commenting at "THE IRS SCANDAL AND OBAMACARE: Yes, Your Private Health Information Will Be Used Against You", offers the following:

"Shared Responsibility Payment for Not Maintaining Minimum Essential Coverage" [PDF] is the enabler. And enforcing that gives the IRS a free hand to do anything it wants regarding your medical benefits.

I've shared this document with trusted pros in the insurance and financial sectors and they are absolutely shocked at what it portends.

For one, absolutely no reliable safe-harbor -- as everything is based on "community" ratings and averages, you may not know until it is too late that you have failed to buy "too little" coverage.

But don't take my word for it -- read every last word of this official IRS documents and then come back and tell me what you think.

If you don't have time to peruse all 72 pages and then research the ties to thousands of other pages of cross-referenced regulations, here are some sample passages:

• "...Alternatively, the proposed regulations provide that a taxpayer may elect to use the premium for the lowest cost bronze plan that would apply to a set of individuals that have the same characteristics as the taxpayer’s nonexempt family (such as one adult plus children) as if one plan covered all members of the taxpayer’s shared responsibility family."

• "...In general, a premium tax credit is allowable under section 36B for any coverage month (within the meaning of §1.36B-3(c)) that occurs in a taxable year in which a taxpayer is an applicable taxpayer (within the meaning of §1.36B-2(b)). A month is not a coverage month for an individual, and thus no premium tax credit is allowable for the individual’s coverage, if the individual is eligible for minimum essential coverage other than coverage offered in the individual market for that month..."

• "...(ii) For the period January through June 2016, under paragraphs (b)(2)(ii) and (b)(2)(iii) of this section, the applicable dollar amount is $1,737.50 (($695 x 2 adults) + ($695/2) x 1 child)). Under paragraph (b)(2) of this section, the flat dollar amount is $1,737.50 (the lesser of $1,737.50 or $2,085 ($695 x 3))."

These are 72 incomprehensible pages that grant the IRS unfettered power over your financial and physical well-being.

The IRS has a long and ignominious history of targeting political opponents. Its latest actions make it clear that it has been serving as a political retribution wing of the permanent Obama campaign or "Organizing For America".

In the midst of this madness, Obamacare is set to magnify the power of the IRS by a factor of 10 or more.

Based upon the record, empowering the IRS to control health care will turn out to be a disastrous mistake, no matter who is in power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and the IRS will have absolute power over your health care.

The IRS will punish its political foes by withholding treatment and it will reward its political friends by offering it expedited services.

That much is clear from the latest scandal.

And earlier today, President Obama topped off this debacle by refusing to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

Eighteen strikes and you're out. As Mark Levin suggests, the IRS must be disbanded and replaced with The Fair Tax. It's time to unleash the economy and constrain the federal government's weed-like urge to grow. The Fair Tax accomplishes both ends.


Cartoon: Dave Granlund, Cagle.com.

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