WASHINGTON – On Thursday morning, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann questioned whether Internal Revenue Service could be trusted to oversee implementation of the health care law, suggesting it could inappropriately use records to deny people health care.
Paul and Bachmann made the comments at a press conference with several members of Congress and members of tea party groups from across the country,
“With the implementation of Obamacare at hand, and knowing that it is the IRS … that will be the enforcing mechanism for this new entitlement program of Obamacare, it’s very important to ask, and now it is reasonable to ask, could there potential be political implications regarding health care – access to health care, denial of health care,” Bachmann said.
“Will that happen based on a person’s political position or their religiously held beliefs?” she asked.
“These questions would have been considered out of bounds a week ago,” she went on. “Today, these questions are considered more than reasonable and more than fair to the American people.”
Paul, himself a doctor, said he was “quite worried about the privacy of medical records.”
“I’m quite worried that your medical records now will be evaluated by the IRS,” which he said has no shown itself to have both the “ability” and the “penchant” to seek out and target political opponents.
The IRS is tasked with oversight of the new tax credits and tax increases that will be implemented as part of the Affordable Care Act, as well as making sure that businesses and individuals are in compliance with provisions of the law, including the individual mandate.