UPDATED: 7.5M people pay fee for not signing up for health insurance

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect new numbers from the IRS about how many people paid a penalty last year for not having health insurance coverage and the average penalty fee.

About 7.5 million people paid the "individual responsibility payment" fee rather than sign up for individual insurance as mandated by the Affordable Care Act, according to a letter to members of Congress from Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen. The average fee consumers paid for opting out of insurance coverage was about $200. Overall, a recent report from the agency's Taxpayer Advocate concludes, the IRS' administration of ACA rules has "gone well" even though it experienced some glitches. In one example, the report notes that the Vermont state exchange portal was offline for two months during open enrollment, which delayed the IRS' processing of change-in-circumstances submissions. Letter