So, let me ask this: Are these the only people who can buy catastrophic insurance?
After all, one reason to buy very high deductible insurance is that it covers truly catastrophic expenses. But there is another reason. If you have such a policy, you are in a "pricing club," by which I mean you pay the insurance company's rates for expenses under the deductible. Once you're insured by them, they don't want you to hit the deductible so they have to pay out.
I've also heard that Obamacare makes it very difficult to buy a simple high-deductible policy. Is this the exception?
Catastrophic plans didn't go away, they just don't count as full time insurance unless one is under 30 or you can qualify for a hardship. It wouldn't make any sense to buy a catastrophic plan and get dinged with a tax penalty. That would likely total the cost of a bronze plan. Catastrophic plans are still a viable option for short term insurance needs like taking time off between jobs if it is less than 3 months. Sorry I can't help on the small print details. This stuff varies state by state.