Yep. I’ve been looking at the same things – weighing it all.
My husband is a few years older than me – so he’ll be going on Medicare sooner. That’s a relatively known price. (Limits on increases tied to CPI.)
But for me and my minor sons – I’ve got to figure out the most frugal way to get coverage – or I have to work a lot more years – JUST for health insurance. I know the cobra costs for my current insurance – and they are similar (slightly better coverage – same cost) to what I can get from insurer privately… and the silver plan of the exchange is in the same ballpark.
I hadn’t looked at a 5 year plan (push 5 years of income into one year – so you qualify for 4 years of lower income/subsidies.) But I’d looked at pushing all deductible expenses into one year (prepay prop taxes, etc), and income into the other. (Sell stocks with gains, etc). So it bounces 1 year with subsidies, 1 year without… I like your idea better – except the interest rate issue.
