Leaving aside the question of whether persons who buy insurance to avoid paying the "individual mandate/penalty" are paying a tax or not, it is clearlythe case that the "mandate/penalty" is itself a "tax," despite Barky's humpty dumpty new speak refusal to admit as much. Now only does it meet the dictionary definition of the word "tax" (resort to which Barky claimed somehow showed it wasn't a tax!), but, in the House bill which passed and in the Senate bill being considered the "penalty" is actually called a "tax," and semantics aside, there is reference to the Internal Revenue (aka "Tax") Code for failure to pay. In other words, if you don't pay it, you can be punished (fines, jail) just as you can be (and under the same statute) as for for not paying your Income Tax.

It's a tax, and it's clearly going to be levied on people who make significantly less then 250k per year.