It is a tax and it will hit those making less than $250K

I don't know about you, but I am shocked. SHOCKED!

You knew this was coming. Ranking Republican Chuck Grassley asked a staffer about the penalty for not carrying insurance. "Isn't the penalty here an excise tax and won't it affect people making under $250,000 a year?" he asked Thomas Barthold, the joint tax committee's chief.

"It's structured as a penalty excise tax," Barthold answered. “Yes, we think that some people would be subject to the penalty excise tax when everything shakes out. We would expect that some would have incomes less than $200,000.”