GOP: Application for health law's benefits is too complex

House Republicans criticized the Obama administration Thursday over the complicated process for seeking insurance under Obama's signature healthcare law.

A draft application from from the Health and Human Services Department clocks in at 15 pages, The Associated Press reported this week.

Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee said the draft application asks consumers for information they probably won't know — including the details of their employer-sponsored health plan.

The draft application asks consumers for their Employee Identification Number — "a data point not known to most Americans outside of their tax filings," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to HHS requesting a briefing about the forms.

Republicans also questioned whether people would be able to answer the application's questions about the "lowest cost self-only health plan" available through an employer. The form also instructs applicants to "only consider plans that meet the 'minimum value standard' set by the Affordable Care Act."

The healthcare law provides subsides to help low-income people buy private insurance. But HHS and the IRS face a daunting task in determining who is eligible for a subsidy, and how much aid they can receive.

The law also says people can't receive a subsidy if they have the option of buying a plan through their employer that would cost less than 9 percent of their income. But that standard only applies to individual policies, not family plans.

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