There is one important factor that has been left out of this discussion, and perhaps it may only be common knowledge in my particular industry.

The fine/tax that will be imposed can only be collected via someone's income tax return...in other words, if they would have normally had a refund or a bigger refund but for the fine/tax. The IRS is not permitted to use any other form of collection method to collect the tax (levies etc.).

In addition, the fine/tax cannot be imposed on anyone whose insurance cost is greater than 8% of their modified AGI. That means that a large number of people, particularly those over 40 who do not have dependents, will end up not having to pay a fine/tax if they cannot afford the insurance.

The bigger complaint the American public should have is the horrendous coverages being offered. We are accustomed to "good" insurance being 90/10 and worst case insurance being 80/20. Those coverages are now only available on the horrendously expensive Platinum and Gold coverages. The subsidies are based on the Silver plan which is 70/30 and the cheapest plan is the Bronze which is only 60/40. Who isn't going to end up bankrupt if they have a major medical issues and have to pay 30 or 40 percent out of pocket on top of high insurance premiums?

A 56 year old smoker who made 50k a year would somehow have to find a way to pay 1000.00 a month for insurance, (or 15k which which be 35-40% of their single person take home pay) and then still have to find a way to pay 30% of any medical costs! If they weren't a smoker they would still have to come up with about 25% of their take home pay to pay for the premiums. Who in the heck can afford that? Those who are currently insured, for more reasonable prices are losing that coverage!