WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, today introduced a bill to create a Special Inspector General to oversee Obamacare entitled the Special Inspector General for Monitoring the Affordable Care Act (SIGMA Act).  (Audio and video from Senator Roberts here.)

“Obamacare is costing the American public nearly $2 trillion. This monstrous law is so far reaching that it is difficult to find a federal agency that doesn’t have a hand in the pot,” Senator Roberts said.

“And while all of the federal agencies charged with implementing Obamacare have their own Offices of the Inspector General, they are all investigating this law in their own silos. The Health and Human Services Inspector General isn’t talking to the Treasury IG, or the Department of Labor IG, or the Homeland Security IG.

“This bill would create a new Special Inspector General, an Obamacare watchdog, with all the appropriate authority to investigate and audit any programs or activities related to Obamacare across the numerous federal departments, state exchanges, and private contractors in its scope.”

The SIGMA would have broad authority to review all aspects of the law.  Things like:

• Changes in the health insurance marketplace – the amount of patients who have seen their premiums and out-of-pocket costs increased and shrinking physician and other provider networks;
• The employer mandate – its effect on worker hours, employers’ hiring, and the number of businesses subject to the penalty;
• The Healthcare.gov website – its security, functionality, and verification systems;
• Duties of the Internal Revenue Service – plans for calculating subsidy overpayments, how they will notify these individuals and what their plans are for recapturing these overpayments; and
• Medicare cuts via the IPAB – they will provide an analysis of the impact on medical outcomes for our seniors as a result of these cuts. 

“I believe we need to do everything possible to repeal and replace this law with real health reforms that lower costs and restore the all-important relationship between a patient and their doctor,” Senator Roberts continued.

“However, as long as this law is on the books – we need a Watchdog, namely a Special Inspector General, to investigate the implementation of this law and ensure that our scarce taxpayer dollars are being spent in an appropriate manner.”

Senator Roberts is an outspoken opponent of Obamacare. Senator Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance and is the ranking member of its Subcommittee on Health Care. He is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and is co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.

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