I thought it would be rude to speculate on details since it's speculating on a person's life and decisions. But when times are tight, independent contractors and sole proprietors might make the decision to temporarily cancel their own health insurance to save money, since premiums are considerably more expensive than the income tax penalty. This works for saving month-to-month income, at the cost of potentially enormous medical debt if you get sick or injured during this period.

I assumed the situation was something like that.