Democratic Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data

By: Declan McCullagh
Topics: Health Care

(AP)

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.

Over at the Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think tank and presumably no fan of Obamacare), Tom Giovanetti argues that: "How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee.... So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years."

I'm not as certain as Giovanetti that this represents privacy's Armageddon. (Though I do wonder where the usual suspects like the Electronic Privacy Information Center are. Presumably inserting limits on information that can be disclosed -- and adding strict penalties on misuse of the information kept on file about hundreds of millions of Americans -- is at least as important as fretting about Facebook's privacy policy in Canada.)

A better candidate for a future privacy crisis is the so-called stimulus bill enacted with limited debate early this year. It mandated the "utilization of an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014," but included only limited privacy protections.

It's true that if the legislative branch chooses to create "affordability credits," it probably makes sense to ensure they're not abused. The goal of curbing fraud runs up against the goal of preserving individual privacy.

If we're going to have such significant additional government intrusion into our health care system, we will have to draw the privacy line somewhere. Maybe the House Democrats' current bill gets it right. Maybe it doesn't. But this vignette should be reason to be skeptical of claims that a massive and complex bill must be enacted as rapidly as its backers would have you believe.

Update August 27 11 a.m: Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says in e-mail: "We would oppose section 431(a) of the bill because it violates the intent of the Privacy Act which generally requires agencies to obtain information directly from individuals and not from other agencies." EPIC still hasn't updated their Web site to reflect this sentiment, but it's good to know that other folks have concerns too.

Declan McCullagh is a correspondent for CBSNews.com. He can be reached at declan@cbsnews.com. You can bookmark the Taking Liberties site here, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
Follow on Twitter »

280 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment

See all 280 Comments


by Freedomandliberty October 5, 2010 9:19 AM EDT: PART 1
Let me provide a copy of a letter that I?ve sent to numerous politicians concerning the new health care bill. The letter focuses in on the individual mandate contained within the bill and is part of the ongoing debate concerning this legislation. I feel this topic requires further discussion and debate, and I?m directing the letter to a broad spectrum of people. Therefore because of their place in society, I?ve chosen to send copies to various people, in hopes that they might assist in bringing meaningful and effective discourse to this topic both amongst the politicians and the American people. As you will note, I have included a list of those people and organizations to which I have sent copies of this letter. Hopefully the copying and pasting doesn't disturb the format too much.; Reply to this comment


by shoppillrx11 May 8, 2010 1:39 AM EDT: Hey That's a nice post. Lets Find some more interesting posts Thanks Sharing with us.
http://www.shoppillrx.com/; Reply to this comment


by JourneyHomeBurke March 18, 2010 1:20 PM EDT: Healthcare is easy - here's how -

?Use Senate reconciliation and expand Medicare via the Senate?s buy-in provisions. The CBO has already signed off on this as a means of saving money.

More importantly, if more Americans can do a buy-in with Medicare, it creates more cost control (because there?s a genuine competitor to for-profit healthcare).

It also helps to solve the problems of pre-existing conditions, because Medicare does not deny coverage on this basis.

Allowing a Medicare buy-in to Americans under 65 would give people a genuine alternative to private insurance and thereby render the pre-existing question moot.

It would also lower Medicare costs by expanding the risk pool of patients (the great bulk of medical expenses are accounted for by a small number of people, mostly the elderly, requiring very expensive treatment).

And it would substantially enhance the global competitiveness of American corporations. After all, in what other country in the world is health care a marginal cost of production for business?? - Roosevelt Institute Marshall Auerback

Now get out there tell your neighbors, your friends, pick up the phone and email your representatives - because whether you like it or not we are all in this together - and it's us versus the politicians - not each other.

Paul Burke
Author Journey Home
Democracy For America; Reply to this comment


by 001aram November 23, 2009 7:52 AM EST: Great posting. Thanks of shairing this.

Regard
http://www.firstpointhealthcare.com/; Reply to this comment


by rafirebird November 14, 2009 5:13 PM EST: Sure, Bush didn't do all the right things. But to say they are all the same is not very intelligent.Reagan and Carter lead this country from very opposite ends of the spectrum. No president can successfully reform health care without first shoring up the economy.; Reply to this comment


by doneourpart September 21, 2009 3:05 PM EDT: One other thing,the hospitals in our area have you and your family fill out the Health Care Directive and the D.N.R. when you are admitted,I am not aware of any charge for this. This is S.O.P.,unless you have already had this drawn up by your lawyer. We did all of this when we had our wills drawn up. We were in our late 40's and wanted to make sure everyone who should make life and death decisions for us could. We DID NOT need a politican to tell us to do this.; Reply to this comment


by doneourpart September 21, 2009 2:40 PM EDT: Not one of our Doctors are for this plan, I've asked all of them.
Al so I believe the will be no money in banks around the country once people wake up and see that nothing is private anymore.; Reply to this comment


by Real Freedom September 10, 2009 3:36 AM EDT: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have".
Thomas Jefferson

I love these Wingnuts who come on public sites claiming that they know all about American history and the founding fathers, and then follow their messages with quotes they attribute to founders like Jefferson. And get it wrong. This is a Gerald Ford quote, not a Thomas Jefferson quote.

If you find a few of these you actually figure out what web sites the person is reading.; Reply to this comment


by rexrox2 September 4, 2009 11:00 PM EDT: If you,(CBS)start right now, and begin to do the public's work and investigate all these czars, you may be able to save your "NEWS" organization and not go down with OBAMA,NBC,ABC,CNN,MSNBC et.al. To have Van Jones be working,correct that, leading the GREENS in the WHITE HOUSE,and only FOX and Lou Dobbs are willing to even bring it up?? A blind man can see that bias. All of you blocked any attempt to tie OBAMA to Ayres, Wright, and that whole group. Now the CHICKENS ARE COMING HOME TO ROOST. All of you are going to pay a very dear price. You left journalism for FULL-TIME ADVOCACY. This is SO HISTORIC,YOU ALL SAID,and you were right, but for a whole set of reasons you didn't think would ever come out. The people of this country would have loved for OBAMA to be the kind of president you convinced us he was, but alas, he's the radical he has always been.; Reply to this comment


by trinket59 September 3, 2009 5:29 PM EDT: HR 3200 Section 1173A (pg. 58) gives the government real-time access to our financial accounts.

In addition, it exempts the government's current legal requirement, under Chapter 35, Title 44, to protect our records with regard to privacy, security and access as follows: Section 1152 (pg. 304), Section 1221 (pg. 404), Section 1301 (pg. 455), and Section 1866E (pg. 476).

If you want to confirm this for yourself, search "energy and commerce hr3200". The house energy and commerce committee should be your first choice. Here you will find the full text of the bill in addition to all amendments considered.; Reply to this comment