WASHINGTON — 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.

An IRS spokesman says the IRS had planned to start rejecting returns this year on which the taxpayer failed to indicate whether or not he had coverage.

But the IRS says it will keep processing such returns, as it has in the past.

Many of the law’s supporters consider the coverage requirement essential for nudging younger, healthy people into the insurance pool to keep premiums in check.

The IRS says the requirement is still the law.