Health insurance companies are hiding behind the non-profit Enroll America, says AFP-Michigan.
Enroll America activities should be taxed as corporate marketing, not public education.
LANSING, Mich. — Some of the nation’s largest health insurance companies are using a non-profit called Enroll America to market their product to the Michigan public, says the free-market group Americans for Prosperity-Michigan. Enroll America, which has close ties to both the Obama Administration and the health insurance industry, started canvassing neighborhoods in Michigan last week.
“Enroll America isn’t educating the public in compliance with their non-profit status, they are engaging in corporate marketing activities that ought to be taxed,” said Scott Hagerstrom, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Michigan. “Health insurance companies are using a tax-exempt non-profit to sell their product, and in turn gain trillions more in federal tax dollars from subsidies created by Washington’s new health care law.”
This week, the government watchdog group, Cause of Action, asked the IRS to withdraw the tax-exempt status of Enroll America. In its complaint, Cause of Action notes that many of the stakeholders in Enroll America are corporations that will financially benefit from signing up more people onto ObamaCare.
“Many Americans may not realize that health insurance corporations were some of the strongest supporters of Washington’s new health care law, which forces every American to purchase their product or pay a penalty,” said Scott Hagerstrom, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Michigan. “Now these same health insurance companies are hiding behind Enroll America, a tax exempt charity, to market and sell their product including through door-to-door tactics.”
The IRS’ private inurement and private benefit doctrines prohibit non-profits from being organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, including shareholders of the organization. The Cause of Action complaint filed with the IRS asserts that Enroll America fails these doctrines.
