IRS Pressed to Disclose ObamaCare Enrollment and Eligibility Data

Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, has written a letter to Internal Revenue Service acting commissioner Danny Werfel urging the IRS to disclose all the information it has available to date on the eligibility determinations it has made for individuals who have applied for premium tax credits in the health insurance exchanges that went online last month under the Affordable Care Act. 

Camp’s letter requires the agency to turn over state-by-state data on the number of applicants the IRS has reviewed to determine tax credit eligibility as well as the age of the applicants, by Nov. 12. In reference to Werfel’s comments at a recent tax conference in which he said the agency has received 1.3 million requests and has acted on more than 300,000 requests to determine eligibility for the premium tax credits, Camp wrote Tuesday, “While these statistics demonstrate that you have data, they do not provide relevant metrics that would help policy makers determine the extent of the problems facing the health care system.”

Camp gave the IRS until next Tuesday to provide the following data to the Ways and Means Committee.

1. The number of health insurance exchange applicants, by state of residence, the IRS has reviewed and determined, based on their income, are eligible to receive premium tax credits towards the purchase of a health plan.

2. The number of exchange applicants, by state of residence, the IRS has reviewed and determined that their income is below the threshold that would make them eligible for premium tax credits.

3. The number of exchange applicants, by state of residence, the IRS has reviewed and determined that their income is above the threshold that would make them eligible for premium tax credits.

4. The average age, by state of residence, of the exchange applicants for which the IRS has been asked to make an eligibility determination.