There is NO REQUIREMENT in the act that "everybody has to buy insurance."

There is a requirement that those who don't buy the insurance will have to compensate the government for uninsured benefits they are eligible for without being insured.

It's all very much like the "requirement" that you pay all your taxes on time. There's a specific and known interest rate on late payments, and most decent (cheap) tax programs can calculate any "penalties" so you're perfectly entitled to decide when to make the payment as long as you eventually settle up and pay the fairly reasonable additional costs. Of course there's always the threat of attachments, garnishments, and property seizures if you get too late, but it's a choice you can make; and it's a choice for which you can make "formal agreements" with the IRS for a change in the payment schedule.

You have to read the "exceptions" in order to know the rules.

John