One essential aspect of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, is the health insurance overhaul’s individual mandate. Under the 2010 law, Americans lacking health insurance coverage beginning in 2014 are required to pay a penalty. The Obama administration billed that penalty as a minor fine, but the numbers show otherwise.
According to numbers reported by the Washington Free Beacon, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collected $2.8 billion in ACA penalties on 2016 tax returns from 4 million Americans. That’s down from the 5.6 million who were penalized in 2015 returns, likely in response to President Donald Trump’s January 20th executive order to “minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens” of the ACA by waiving the individual mandate. Specifically, the order calls on the IRS and the secretary of Health and Human Services to
