Are the Muslims exempted from this?
If so, is this a “tribute tax”?
I promise not to be a good little Dhemmi!
Christians can play the exemption game too. The reason the Amish/Muslims/whoever are “exempt” is because their religions formally reject the idea of contractual insurance, and have done so for a very long time. The Amish in particular have fought this in court and won status as conscientious objectors. That’s a great status to have because it means the courts understand you would rather die than give in, legally, you have a conviction rather than a mere preference. So I don’t begrudge them their hard-fought legal victories.
But as a nice side-effect of this multi-generational legal fight for First Amendment rights, if you are willing to give up on contractual insurance, you can join one of a number of Christian healthcare exchanges and be exempt from both the IRS mandate tax and assimilation into the Obamacare Borg. I am still selecting which co-op I will join, as there are differences among them worth thinking about. But it is an option available to any Christian, not just the Amish etc. And how great would it be if huge numbers of us went there instead of the exchanges. We could starve the beast to the point of killing it, and all perfectly legal.