Despite President Trump’s pronouncements, not only is Obamacare not dead, there are signs that his administration is keeping it alive.
In the latest signal that the Affordable Care Act is still law, the Internal Revenue Service said this week that it is taking steps to enforce the most controversial provision: the tax penalty people face if they refuse to obtain health insurance.
The agency’s new guidance for tax professionals seems to contradict Mr. Trump’s first executive order, on Inauguration Day, which broadly instructed various agencies to scale back the regulatory reach of the federal health care law.
As part of his promise to overturn the law, the executive order hinted that the new administration could stop enforcing the mandate that people have insurance or pay a tax penalty, which proponents have long argued is critical to the law’s success by requiring young and healthy people to enroll.