The penalties will be collected by the Internal Revenue Service through tax returns.
However, the IRS will not have the authority to bring criminal charges or file liens against those who don't pay.
About
3 million of those required to pay fines in 2016 will have incomes below $59,000 for individuals and $120,000 for families of four, (key: many of these will qualify for MAJOR subsidizes, so why avoid having health care?) according to the CBO projections. The other 900,000 people who must pay the fine will have higher incomes.
If you want to know exactly what your premiums (and subsidizes would be, click below)
http://healthreform.kff.org/SubsidyCalculator.aspx
IF you want an easy to understand detailed explanation of the plan click here
http://healthreform.kff.org/
I agree much of the media is designed to keep people afraid very very afraid (especially of the big bad Government - heaven forbid that the people wake up to the fact the
WE ARE the government).