If I refuse to buy heath insurance how much jail time would I be looking at?

There is no jail time; penalties were removed from the bill by the Senate Finance Committee.

And the penalty is not for not buying insurance; it would be for not paying the fine. And all that would happen in that case is the IRS would collect the amount of the fine from tax refunds.

As other posters stated, it is not a felony, therefore no jail time for not paying the penalty which will just be added to your tax liability. Even not paying the amount of taxes owed is a felony.

However, that being said, lying on a tax return, for example saying you do have insurance when you don't or falsifying records could be considered filing a fraudulent return which is a felony.

Fines, yes, but fines will likely come from both the federal AND state government. MN just proposed a bill last week that would apply a monthly penalty every month you have no insurance. If this bill were to pass, residents could start incurring penalties starting in 2012.

You will probably grow up before the government starts imposing jail time.

First - the plan has to go into effect - like in 2013 or 2014.

Then - they would have to figure out YOU don't have insurance.

There would be 6-12 months worth of warnings, perhaps more. Then fines, warnings, more fines. And finally in 2016 or 2017 they MIGHT actually put someone in jail.

Perhaps you will grow up before then.

I haven't heard of jail time . . . just fines. However, I think there is like - up to a year in prison/25,000 fine if you refuse to pay the initial fines. But I'm not 100% on that.