New, Shorter Obamacare Application Is An Invitation To Fraud
Scott Gottlieb writes at AEI:
Last month, the Federal government floated a 61-page draft application that people would use to sign up for Obamacare's financial subsidies.After a political rebuke over the form's length, the Department of Health and Human Services has released a streamlined, 3-page version of the same application.
The rub? The government's new form is going to be an invitation to fraud and abuse.
Regarding eligibility -- that you make little enough to qualify and aren't receiving health care subsidies another way:
The new form largely takes your word for it all.This leaves one of three possibilities:
First, that the government is willing to tolerate a lot of fraud and waste as subsidies flow
to individuals who weren't eligible for the money in the first place.Or the government is going to rely on the states and the private health plans to ask the probing questions, essentially foisting the vetting process onto other entities so that these actors (and not the Feds) are the targets of any political backlash.
Or third and most likely, it's some combination of each of these devices.
The folks at HHS must be feeling that they're darned if they do and darned if they don't, now that they are taking flack for the 61 page form, as well as the shortened, 3 paged revision. But the conundrum is largely of their own design.
They fashioned a health program so dense and intrusive that it was never going to be easy to rationalize the ensuing paperwork. Now the Obama political team is faced with a stark choice: match the paperwork to the complexity or cut corners.
Out of political expediency, they've decided to cut corners.
The downbeat story that they've temporarily suppressed over the application's length sets up a bigger political backlash over the fraud and abuse that will follow.
I am sure there might be all sorts of problems with the forms, but the article doesn't do much more than assert there will be problems.
A 61 page form is clearly way beyondstupid.
And yes, Obamacare is based on tax records, and yes, most people don't need to fill out any tax records because the gov't has more than enough info to fill it out for them.
So I'm not really being affected by Gottlieb's FUD.
There may be 99 things wrong with Obamacare, but a 3 page form isn't necessarily one of them.
http://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-maker-of-turbotax-fought-free-simple-tax-filing
"Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes — and for free. You'd open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone.
It's already a reality in Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The government-prepared return would estimate your taxes using information your employer and bank already send it. Advocates say tens of millions of taxpayers could use such a system each year, saving them a collective $2 billion and 225 million hours in prep costs and time, according to one estimate.
The idea, known as "return-free filing," would be a voluntary alternative to hiring a tax preparer or using commercial tax software. The concept has been around for decades and has been endorsed by both President Ronald Reagan and a campaigning President Obama.
"This is not some pie-in-the-sky that's never been done before," said William Gale, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It's doable, feasible, implementable, and at a relatively low cost.""
jerry at May 5, 2013 12:47 AM
If you look at the 61 page doc, it is more of a description of how to build the forms/web pages than an actual fill out form. The three page one does cut some of the details out that were in the original description. But they seem to be ones that would allow someone qualify where they wouldn't originally.
Unfortunately I'm going say this is right wing hysteria as much as I hate Obamacare.
Jim P. at May 5, 2013 4:46 AM
"The idea, known as "return-free filing," would be a voluntary alternative..."
Oh. Sort of how our system is "voluntary" now, huh?
It's vitally important to HIDE to cost of government from those who fund it.
Radwaste at May 6, 2013 2:32 AM
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