Dems' Health Care Bill Divulges Personal IRS Tax Data

Meredith Jessup | August 27, 2009 10:46 AM

CBS News is reporting the Democrats' health care overhaul bill includes a provision that would expose individuals' private IRS tax data to a new bureaucratic web:

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.

So yet another concerning question arises from this legislative monstrosity: how many thousands of federal employees will have access to your private records?