Wouldn't you need to attend the classes, do the work and achieve a passing grade to avoid 'flunking out' and losing coverage? Seems to me that if one can't afford to buy private health isurance or by going private you're slicing your budget pie pretty darn thin then you may not be able to claim the FI part or RE.
Apologies if I came across snarky and I'm certainly not pointing a wagging finger at Momoney for posting, but being able to afford our health insurance premiums for the 10-yrs between retirement and medicare was part of our planning. Looking for shortcuts that shift all or part of the financial burden onto taxpayers in the years before medicare kicks in when an individual or family has the ability to pay is wrong.
We can have another conversation on whether medicare should even exist, be mandatory for seniors or everyone, scaled back or just cover catastrophic situations for people with higher net worths and incomes or if their deductibles should be higher.
I've got my firefighting suit on...flame away!