I'm a single contractor and can't really justify it. It saves me about 8k per year and this would be a bronze plan through MediCali if I got it. People would say "well what if you get a cancer or something" and yea that may be true but in that instance not only would I be out that premium but also the deductible and it won't even cover everything so maybe I'm actually better off stacking cash until the inevitable.
This strategy is why there are open-enrollment periods for ACA-compliant plans. I had a startup back in 2014 where I had us on HC.gov/ACA market insurance. A billing SNAFU on Blue Cross's part (that year was really rough for HC.gov!) ended up getting that insurance cancelled for nonpayment about a month in, which is when I discovered that our only coverage options were all non-compliant short-term policies, all of of which excluded preexisting conditions and wouldn't underwrite one of my children at all due to an unexplained seizure several years earlier.
(We resolved the situation by finding a bank-shot qualifying event that allowed us to re-enroll --- it was extremely situational and had to do with my wife and I simultaneously leaving our jobs within a short window of time.)
That's indeed the play for non-corporate-insured consumers. Short-term insurance was $1,000 a year for a healthy person last time I checked. Just keep renewing until you need ACA-compliant insurance for some reason.
But back to my point: that does nothing to solve the root cause, which is the price inflation. And Washington is so deeply compromised that they will never fix it. The only solution lies with us just walking away. We hate to bargain a price on getting exposed to the ugly side of life, like disease, discomfort, and death, but indeed, everything has a price. And we will continue to be tested on our willingness to pay it with until we start playing hardball.
I'm right there with you - this is a case study in "perverse incentives." There is zero benefit to "paying into the system" to be had under the current model. Better to chance it and then sign up for a plan at the last minute since insurers can't deny you based on pre-conditions.