Well, you could realize the last trading day of the year. Yeah, you'd have no insurance for a day or 2 or 3.
Coverage is for whole months at a time, not fractions of a month.
I worded it poorly. I should have said, "You'd have no access to insurance for a day or two or 3." Medicare coverage is immediate...there's a "presumption of enrollment" if you're "poor" - with "poor" being defined by income, but not assets. So, if you got sick on December 20th and you didn't have insurance (because you didn't buy any all year) you would be covered under Medicaid because your income was still under the threshold. The idea isn't to be covered for the month of December. The idea is to be NOT covered and still showing a low enough income to be Medicaid eligible for as long as possible.
Medicaid coverage begins no more than 45 days from application. Today is 4/3/18, apply today and it starts for 5/1/18. Apply on 4/16/18 and it starts on 6/1/18. However it can be retroactive up to 90 days, provided you are eligible in the retroactive period. So have no coverage all year, harvest your income in month X. But be aware that for that harvest month you are not eligible, so do the harvest on the last day of the month. Hopefully you never get sick and never have to invoke the application. If you do get sick go to the ER, explain the situation, they will have you apply with a retroactive request.
How this would work in the real world is to be seen.
