Good stuff: Senate marks up bill to eliminate private collections for the IRS (link)

[FormerDittoHead]

http://www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1132">Ways and Means Committee Markup Includes ‘Concrete Step’ Against IRS Tax Debt Program

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July 18 2007

Washington D.C. — In its approval of the Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007, the House Ways and Means Committee “has taken a concrete step” toward ending the unwise and costly use by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of private tax debt collectors, the leader of the union representing IRS employees said today.
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and here's to those who still think that private enterprise is always more efficient than government:

...The measure was approved in the aftermath of a May hearing by the committee which made clear a number of significant problems with the IRS program—including the use by private companies of abusive collection tactics; the fact that IRS employees can do the work more efficiently, with a 13 to 1 return on investment versus the 4 to 1 return by the private tax debt collectors; and collector authentication practices that increase the likelihood of identity theft by urging taxpayers to reveal their Social Security numbers to strangers over the telephone.
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HMMMMmmmm. I wonder if the same experience (note: EXPERIENCE - not some half-assed talk radio free market "theory") could be applied to health insurance...?