Yes, ACA is based on projected income:
https://www.healthcare.gov/income-and-household-information/...
However, for most people, the primary number to estimate this is your adjusted gross income, which they explicitly instruct to use line 7 on the 1040. It's not entirely clear to me who the regulatory authority is now that the tax penalty has been taken away for not carrying insurance, but I'm pretty sure it's going to look bad if you say that your income is near $0 to get a subsidized plan and your actual income is above the subsidy level and the IRS will have this information.
As far as holding the money in a C-corp, sure. However, then you're going to pay the corporate income tax rate for keeping the money in C-corp, file much more complicated paperwork than you would as a sole-proprietorship (depending on the state), and then likely have to pay additional taxes or play games once that money turns into income. All of this is to save on what's going to turn out to be likely less than $5k in premiums, which are already tax deductible as a self-employed person.
I'll still contend that the comment is largely false given the idea is to save money by pretending that there's no income. The IRS isn't dumb and they'll get their taxes eventually even if it requires an audit. It seems like a huge hassle and liability to play this game to save such a small amount of money. If this isn't a small amount of money, then the OP isn't in a position to start a business, unfortunately.