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Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 30, 2018.
President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday night about killing Obamacare’s requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a fine.
Trump did not mention during his State of the Union address, however, that last year he and fellow Republicans failed to repeal and replace many other parts of the Affordable Care Act, as they had eagerly sought.
“We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 a year — forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford government-ordered health plans,” Trump told an audience made up of both chambers of Congress, and others.
“We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare — the individual mandate is now gone,” Trump said.
The individual mandate’s enforcement was repealed, effective in 2019, as part of a major tax bill passed by Congress last month.
The mandate remains in effect for 2018.
Most people who do not have health coverage that complies with minimum standards outlined by the Affordable Care Act this year face a tax penalty of $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is higher. However, there are a slew of exemptions to the mandate.
