Obama says insurance mandate is not tax hike

Bloomberg reports:

President Barack Obama said requiring individuals to have health insurance doesn’t amount to a tax increase and that a Senate Finance Committee proposal will move the effort to revamp health-care forward.

“For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s This Week program. “Right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.”