Shaping Your Financial Future

Three Ways To Get Affordable Health Insurance If You Are Self-Employed

28 September 2015 by Angie Wells

There are many great advantages to being self-employed, but health care insurance is not one of them. For those who are self-employed, finding affordable coverage can be challenging. However, there are a few ways to find a good policy. The following are three possibilities to get the health insurance that you need.

Get a catastrophic health insurance policy

This can be a good idea for a certain group of people. Basically, this type of policy has a very large deductible, and this is what keeps the premiums down. For example, an insurance policy may have a $5,000 deductible. This means that you must pay the first $5,000 of your medical bill, then the insurance policy will kick in. But even then, a policy may only pay a certain percentage until the next tier of medical costs is reached. An example would be: from $5,000 to $10,000, the insurance company pays 70% of your bill; after this tier is reached, the insurance pays 100% of the medical bill. This type of coverage is a good idea for those who are self-employed in their middle ages with substantial assets to protect in the case of a serious illness. If you are self-employed and about 10 years or less away from qualifying for Medicare, this may be a good policy to have.

Enroll in a group plan for small businesses

There are many health insurance companies that offer group plans for small businesses, and they define a small business as someone who employs as few as two people. If you're self-employed but have no employees, it may be beneficial to hire a couple of people. It may even be possible to hire your spouse or relatives. As long as they are actually working for you and not just names on paper, they will likely qualify your business for a group plan. You will likely need to get a business license with a business name, but this does not cost much.

Enroll in a group plan based upon your professional association

If you are self-employed in an area that has a professional association such as those found among doctors, lawyers and accountants, there may be an association you can join that offers its members a health insurance plan. The downside to this type of group insurance is that associations that provide medical insurance plans usually have tight controls over who can and cannot be a member. But if you are a self-employed professional, it is worth looking into what is available.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that there are options available for people who are self-employed. So if you have experienced sticker shock from a quotation on a single policy, explore the options listed above for group insurance plans. For more advice, speak directly with professionals like Fiscal Fitness.

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