One way to nudge/coax people who find themselves in a narrow window of time when they would benefit by staying out of Obamacare in their self-interest is to stipulate the following penalty if and when they want to join the mainstream and obtain a ACA compliant policy (inside or outside the exchange, i.e. out in the real world outside of their walled ERISA garden), or Medicare:
for EVERY year they choose to stay out of Obamacare,
a) forego any subsidies under Obamacare for THREE years.
b) Pay a surcharge of 30% on other insurance for THREE years.
c) If they haven't paid their full penalty as above by the time they are 65, delay medicare eligibility by ONE year for every year that hasn't been offset as above.
The logic of the above is hard to argue, as all the prices of ACA policies and Medicare reflect the savings obtained by everyone in the group participating -- healthy or otherwise. If you want to carve yourself out when you are healthy, and then join the pool at your convenience, there's got to be a penalty.
you know.. exactly like the pre-existing condition exclusion/waiting period we had before ACA. Just that in this case, it is a pre-existing condition of selfishness.
And then again, what the hell do I know. I don't have a megaphone like Wall Street Journal.