Most people who work and handle their finances prudently, and also maintain a healthy lifestyle, could afford to pay for private medical insurance throughout their lives (REALLY private, not the government-hyperregulated stuff that passes for “private” insurance these days), if they hadn’t been forced to subsidize other people through both government programs and government regulation of private insurance that drives costs through the roof.
Our solution (my husband’s and mine) is never to retire, LOL. Neither one of us would be covered for certain things under a private health care policy (we both have pre-existing conditions...he was unlucky enough to have a sports injury at a relatively young age and require a hip replacement, so any complications with that and there likely will be as he ages wouldn’t be covered...I have MS, and that’s a whole other story.) We aren’t counting on Medicare, and we do save a large portion of our paychecks. But we will probably need to stay covered under a group policy in order to have our existing medical conditions covered, so the obvious solution is to avoid retirement!