How is being forced to buy a product or service a tax?

It's not.

Just because Roberts called it a tax doesn't make it one. The Supreme Court has never had the power to tax the American people.

It's a tax because you can't dodge it. You can't dodge a tax, you can't dodge buying the insurance plan. Yeah the government doesn't get revenue from it, however you still lose your income due to government coercion. I don't see how being forced to buy a product is what a free country would embrace.

If you refuse to pay, you're hit with a penalty. It's stupid to punish citizens who refuse a service that's quasi privatized.

If government takes money from you by force it is a tax. It's called forced charity. Democrats love government force. The people who do not want the product have to pay, so that is force. If you fail to buy the product because you don't want it the Fed will add it to your income tax. Sounds a lot like Communism doesn't it. Democrats do not value freedom, they value entitlements and free hand outs. The rest of us value our freedom and do NOT WANT government forcing us to buy something we don't want.

Well, the argument is, it's a tax in the sense of a penalty. Kinda like a parking ticket. It's all the same to the government. It's times like this I wish I were Mexican. They're exempt from paying the "tax".

I'd find it interesting to hear how this is a tax, but requiring the purchase of state Id to vote isn't a poll tax.

Apparently, it is a way to avoid a tax. or earn a tax exemption, if you will.

Is it any wonder that liberals say that Roberts got it right?

John Roberts opinion on the case made for interesting reading. Check out Scalia's dissent for the Fox news opinion of the law. I think the law should have been kicked out, but Scalia's writings are still off the wall.

If you are at the beginning of the legal argument it is a tax, if you are near the end it is not a tax.

is car insurance a tax?

Exactly. The SCOTUS redefined it.