Print
A cancer patient who is an outspoken critic of Obamacare is now facing an audit by the IRS.
Bill Elliot, prominently seen on television criticizing the new law, is facing an IRS audit of his finances going back to 2009.
Elliot became a celebrity after he told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that he would rather pay the tax penalty for not getting health insurance rather than buy a policy from an Obamacare exchange. Elliot said his health insurance is one of the policies that will be cancelled in January 2014 because it doesn’t meet Obamacare requirements.
“I loved my insurance,” Elliot told Kelly. “They were paying just about everything, including medication and medical devices.”
“They’re not going to pay for the pharmaceuticals and the medical devices,” Elliot said of the plans he found through Obamacare. He noted that the new plan wouldn’t pay for a $3,000 MRI. He also said the plan would cost him $1,500 a month.
Elliot said it would be cheaper to pay the penalty and let nature take its course – apparently meaning that he would rather die than go on Obamacare. He felt the $1,500 a month cost would be a burden on his family.
Learn How to Save Thousands of Dollars on State-of-the-Art Treatment Abroad
Elliot also felt that president Obama insulted him with his apology for Obamacare problems. He called Obama’s statements of apology for the healthcare plan’s limitations an insult.
“Absolutely he misled me,” Elliot said of Obama. He said he voted for Obama because Obama promised health insurance reform.
And now he’s getting audited
Elliot was able to avoid a grim outcome with the help of C. Steven Tucker, an insurance broker who helped him keep his insurance policy. Tucker said a federal law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1997 makes it illegal to cancel sick people’s insurance policies.
Tucker maintains that insurance companies violated HIPAA when they cancelled some policies because of Obamacare. He has alleged that the Obama administration refused to enforce HIPAA and use it to reinstate the cancelled policies.
Like Elliot, Tucker is now facing an IRS audit, Front Page Magazine reported. Tucker is apparently being audited back to 2003 while Elliot is being audited back to 2009. Unfortunately, details of the audits are not available.
This is not the first time that the Internal Revenue Service has been accused of targeting individuals for political reasons. As Off The Grid News reported, the agency was accused of targeting conservative political groups for audits. Other reports indicate that IRS audits were directed against everybody from Billy Graham to PETA.
Ben Carson, a hero among many conservatives, also was audited after he publicly criticized the new health care law.
