“Since the I.R.S. also is the chief enforcer of Obamacare requirements, [Michele Bachmann] asked whether the I.R.S.’s admission means it ‘will deny or delay access to health care’ for conservatives. At this point, she said, that ‘is a reasonable question to ask.’ ”
– Bob Unruh, Why Obama Released Embarrassing IRS Bombshell, WND Exclusive, May 13
Yes, that’s right. You read the title of this post correctly. Obamacare turns out to be a single-payer healthcare insurance program, after all!
Or so says Michele Bachmann, anyway. And she certainly would know.
This is great news, in my opinion. But, I mean, who knew? I’d thought until now that the only role that the IRS plays in Obamacare was to collect the penalty, via the tax apparatus, from individuals who aren’t insured through their (or a family member’s) employer and who choose to pay the penalty rather than buy insurance in the private market. In other words, that the IRS role concerns only people who don’t have healthcare insurance, not people who do.
But apparently I was wrong. I haven’t actually read the statute, which is infamously long, and somewhere in it, it requires all healthcare insurance premiums to be paid to the IRS. The name of which, once the full law kicks in next year, will be the Internal Blue Cross/Blue Shield Revenue Service.
Yes, the agency will still collect ordinary income taxes as it does now. But it also become our healthcare insurer. Unless you are a conservative, in which case it will still require you or your employer to pay your insurance premiums to that agency. Or maybe just through that agency; I’m not sure which. As I said, I haven’t read the statute, so I don’t know whether this will be like the Medicare system, or instead the agency will forward the premiums to your chosen private insurer, at least unless you’re a conservation, in which case the agency might use your premiums to pay for daycare for the young children of liberals.
Or maybe I’m misunderstanding completely, because of wishful thinking on my part. Maybe instead, the statute requires the private insurance companies to get the agency’s approval before agreeing to pay a policyholder’s medical bills.
Yeah, that must be it. The statute requires the private insurance companies to get the agency’s approval before agreeing to pay a policyholder’s medical bills. It’s odd, though, that three years after the statute’s enactment, this has never been mentioned before. By anyone. Which makes that report about the Bachmann interview truly an exclusive.