If jail time is the required penalty for disobedience, huge numbers of people could force the government to follow its own rules to the letter (Saul Alinksy's own strategy in "Rules for Radicals") and put millions of Americans in jail. Massive civil disobedience could dismantle the monster before our very eyes in the blink of an eye by the requirement under constitutional law that every person charged with such a crime must have his or her day in court and is entitled to a speedy trial.
The federal court system in the United States would grind to an immediate halt.
The entire law enforcement system would be so busy arresting and booking millions of health-care non-payers, the entire legal process would completely break down under the weight of legal bureaucracy and criminal procedure.
Millions would become criminals and have to be dealt with and there is no practical way, short of violent, repressive tyranny, it could be done.
The American people retain enormous power regardless of what the lunatics pass in Congress.
This is one reason why Congress cannot completely overrule the will of the American people.
This was the problem with the disaster called Prohibition.
Stalin had no problem putting people on trial out in the field. Three guys accused someone, then shot them and dumped them in a hole. Twenty million were killed by the time his reign was over.
See the FR post about Stalin, Man of Steel. There’s an excellent google video link at the post.