Judicial Watch, a watchdog group obtained some documents that indicate that the Internal Revenue Service spent $5 million to threaten Americans into buy Obamacare coverage.
According to documents obtained by the group, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House’s Behavioral Sciences Team under the Obama administration set-up a $5 million program to pressurize individuals that initially refused to get Obamacare and force them into purchasing coverage.
Judicial Watch received documents from the IRS containing inter-agency agreements between the IRS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) devised to circumvent potential legal prohibitions on unauthorized disclosure or inspection of taxpayer information collected by the IRS.
“Attached are drafts of the letters that IRS will send to selected taxpayers who paid a penalty for failure to have coverage or who claimed an exemption from the coverage requirement for tax year 2015,” said Janet McCubbin, director of individual taxation at the IRS, as noted by the documented emails. “As you know, we are planning to send several different versions of the letter to see which types of messages work best,” she stated.
“These letters have been drafted with input from the White House Behavioral Sciences Team and CMS, and have been approved by CMS. And IRS staff provided a lot of assistance on the PDF,” noted the Judicial Watch and highlighted that the IRS reportedly approximated $5 million to craft and develop the letters.
“The law requires people to have a minimum level of health coverage, qualify for an exemption, or pay a penalty when they file their taxes,” the letters send out read. And that, “Our records show you claimed an exemption from the health coverage requirement when you filed your 2015 taxes. If you or someone in your family doesn’t have health insurance or an exemption next year, you’ll likely owe a penalty for 2017. We are writing to make sure you know how you can avoid this penalty by signing up for health insurance or getting an exemption.”
“The penalty for not having any health-coverage or an exemption in 2017 will be at least $695 per adult and $347 per child (up to $2,085 per family), and could be more, depending on your income,” the letters stated, threatening the recipients.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton noted, “so now we have more evidence of more Obama IRS abuses targeting innocent Americans—all in the name of Obamacare.” He added, “No wonder it took a federal lawsuit and court order to get these documents—as they show the Obama White House and its agencies were happy to threaten and treat Americans like lab rats in order to bolster Obamacare,” he added.
