The Democrat's healthcare proposal calls for a tax on people who do not acquire health insurance (and in some versions, calls for jail time). The President says it is not a tax, but rather a fine, because he promised not to increase taxes on people making less than $250,000 per year. There is some doubletalk here. The real reason the bill calls the fee a tax is that if it is a fine, then people have a right to "due process." That would cause a lot of problems, tying up courts and also delaying the receipt of the funds. Then there is the matter that the fine might be (and probably is) unconstitutional. In fact, the entire healthcare reform bill is probably unconstitutional, not that Democrats care about that. Obama has frequently said that he doesn't think much of the Constitution.