I retired at 57. I paid aprox. $16,000/year for health insurance for me and my wife on my first year of retirement. Then I learned about health sharing plans. They are basically catastrophic plans with a few perks and the cost was $500/month (6,000/yr). With the $10k annual savings, I happily paid for any occasional doctors visits. Also, Quest offers services where you can get deeply discounted blood work which you can order yourself on line. Grassroots also offers this lab service. The health sharing plan I used was Medishare until I found Zion health share (
http://www.zionhealthshare.org/), which was better. My income was over the limit for any meaningful healthcare.gov tax credit. The health share plans worked out well for us but we had no pre existing conditions and we are in good health. I am happily over 65 now and on medicare. The time goes by quickly!