CA Health Insurance after quitting

I’m in the midst of planning out a potential career break, and figuring out the best timing and what my options for health insurance might be. The Insurance world is something my brain just can’t comprehend for some reason, thus why I’m reaching out for advice.

In California, health insurance is required – you can’t go more than 90 days without it, even though I’m a healthy 29 y.o and don’t take regular trips to the doctor. I’m pretty positive my sabbatical would be longer than 90 days, so I’ve been looking into covered California plans. I’m getting estimates of about $330/mo for bronze plans with my current income (107k annual)

The earliest I’d plan to leave my company is early March, due to a payout of company dividends happening in late February. If I’m looking to spend the least amount possible on health insurance (I don’t need much coverage other than for a catastrophic life threatening event), am I better off leaving my position as soon as I receive my payout? That way my annual income for 2025 is as low as it could be (estimating to have been paid about 30k for 2025 by March)?

I already know by the time March rolls around I won’t qualify for medi-cal which is why I’ve just been looking at CC. Also I’m expecting cobra to be extortionatly out of budget so I’m not even considering that.