ITHINK THAT most agree that we need some kind of health care reform. Currently, there are a number of proposals on the table including the President's plan, the House plan and the Senate plan. However, all three appear to have certain provisions in common.

The biggest problem with all of the current plans may be the devil in the details.

Everyone should keep current and read up on what is being proposed.

The devil is the new role being contemplated for the Internal Revenue Service and a newly created agency which would be known as the Health Choices Administration.

The primary agency responsible for enforcing national health care will be the IRS which would become the main agency for determining who has an "acceptable" health insurance plan, finding and punishing those who aren't part of an acceptable plan, for subsidizing individual health insurance costs through the issuance of tax credits and for enforcing the rules on those who attempt to opt out or attempt to abuse the system.

A substantial portion of H.R. 3200, the House health care bill, is devoted to amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in order to give the IRS the authority to perform these new duties.

The plan would require all Americans to have "acceptable" insurance coverage. In fact, the bills include long and complex definitions of what is "acceptable." The bills also designate the IRS as the agency charged with enforcing that requirement.

On your yearly 1040 tax return, you would be required to attest that you have "acceptable" coverage.

Under current plans, insurers would be required to submit to the IRS proof of insurance for each individual who they cover.

The IRS would then check the information it receives from the insurers against what you have submitted on your tax form.

If it all matches up, you're fine. If it doesn't, you will hear from the IRS. And if you don't have "acceptable" coverage, you will be subject to substantial fines that are going to be administered by the IRS.

The IRS would also be involved in how you pay for insurance.

Everyone would be required to buy coverage. The millions of Americans who can't afford it would receive a subsidy to pay for it.

Under the version of the plan currently under negotiation in the Senate Finance Committee, that subsidy would come through the IRS in the form of a refundable tax credit.

Under the House plan, the subsidy would come directly from the Health Choices Administration.

Regardless of which bill you read, the IRS would be the key to making the system work.

Before you could receive any subsidy, the Health Choices Administration would have to determine whether you are eligible for it.

To do this, the bills under consideration would give the Health Choices Commissioner the authority to demand confidential information from the IRS about individual taxpayers. The IRS would have to provide it.

Under current law, it is a felony for a government official to release taxpayer information in all but the most limited of circumstances such as for a criminal prosecution.

The information can also, in some instances, be released to the Social Security Administration and the Veterans' Administration for the determination of benefits.

The health legislation would change the Internal Revenue Code to permit the IRS to give similar information to the new Health Choices Administration.

Some versions of the bill permit the release of confidential taxpayer information

to the Social Security Administration for the purpose of helping Social Security officials find qualifying seniors who can then be encouraged to enroll in the prescription drug program.

So far, there has been little substantive public debate about the integral role of the IRS in nearly every aspect of the various national health care proposals.

The first question that one might ask is whether the IRS is equipped to handle these new demands.

Secondly, one wonders whether it is the purpose of the IRS to collect revenue or should its mandate be expanded to determine whether 300 million people have health insurance and what kind of insurance they are carrying.

Quite frankly, the IRS isn't really all that great at doing what it is supposed to be doing already.

Should the IRS be involved in health care enforcement in the first place?

As seen in the town halls across the country in August, many Americans seem to be really concerned about the coercive nature of the proposed national health care system.

To give the IRS the power to police the system may give many more pause.

Backers of the bills are betting that giving people money to buy health insurance will outweigh concerns about privacy and coercive government.

Before Congress makes any decision on national health care, voters should know just what it will involve.