Â鶹ŮÓÅ

The IRS says it's following President Donald Trump's executive order on health care by easing enforcement of the unpopular Obama-era requirement for people to have coverage or risk fines. Trump directed federal agencies to ease the health law's rules after he took office. (2/15)

The Internal Revenue Service has revoked an Obama-era instruction to taxpayers that was taking effect during the current filing season as a way to further compliance with the ACA’s requirement that most Americans carry health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Under the instruction, the IRS had announced that it would no longer process tax returns for people who fail to send a notice with their returns that they have insurance, are exempt from the requirement or are paying the fine. (Goldstein, 2/15)

Since the formal launching of the health care program in 2014, taxpayers have been given the option of checking a box on line 61 of their 1040 federal tax returns declaring whether or not they or members of their family have qualified health insurance -- and providing documentation to prove it. Even with this voluntary approach, the IRS collected individual mandate payments from 8.1 million tax returns in 2015 averaging $210 for a total of $1.7 billion, according to an analysis of IRS data by Investor’s Business Daily. (Pianin, 2/15)

It is unclear how much of an effect the decision will have. The mandate remains the law, and people are still supposed to pay a penalty for lacking coverage. Insurers are worried that the Trump administration could ease up on the mandate or create more exemptions to it. The mandate helps bring in healthy enrollees to balance out the sick ones and prevent premiums from spiking. (Sullivan, 2/15)