No matter where you live in the United States, if you work for yourself you are going to need health insurance. You might justify not having health insurance because of the cost; however, what is the cost going to be if you don’t carry personal, or self-employed health insurance? God forbid if anything were to happen, but as we know accidents happen, our children get sick, new generations come into existence, and a myriad of other medical necessities could happen. Thank goodness we can’t be thrown in jail if we can’t pay our health care costs due to not being insured. About the worst that would happen is that your credit score would drop in the toilet and you might get sued by your creditors.
It’s a no-brainer; the premiums for health insurance go up in direct proportion to the cost of health care going up. Health insurance companies are not run by the government in the United States, but they are regulated at the federal and state levels. If health insurance companies were not regulated, we might be forced to pay even higher premiums than we do.
How do we find the best buy in health insurance when we are self-employed? The best thing you can do is educate yourself on insurance before you sign on the dotted line. You should know just what your policy covers, and what it doesn’t cover. You need to put on your high powered reading glasses and read that fine print. The print is tiny for a reason. Most people, (including me) have glossed over the fine print, and then when you feel you have a claim, there might be some loophole that you weren’t aware of. I had this happen to me with my insurance on my mobile home. It burned down, but because I wasn’t living in it at the time (my mom and dad were) the insurance didn’t have to pay, and they didn’t. Be sure to read the fine print!
What type of health insurance policy should you purchase when you are self employed? Take your pick. You can purchase a personal plan, group plan, short term health insurance, and you can even self-insure with a health savings plan. To get a ball park figure of what you can afford, go online to get a health insurance quote. You just plug in the information the calculator asks for, and you will be given a list of insurance companies with offers. You will see very low prices on some insurance packages, while there are very high prices on others. What’s the difference? The difference is the deductible that you will be responsible for.
What type of health insurance should you purchase? That’s up to you. What do you need? Do you have a family? Do you have anyone with special needs in your family? Is everyone fairly healthy? You need to ask yourself all kinds of questions to decide what type of health insurance you should sign up for.
Let’s just assume that you and your family (if you have one) are healthy. You go for your yearly checkups. You don’t have any young children that will need frequent doctor visits. You might be able to do well with a low premium policy with a higher deductible. You can also open up a health savings account and put money in it for the deductible, should the need arise. Let the money work for you until you need it. There is no sense in paying out the nose for insurance premiums, especially if you never get to use the insurance enough to justify the cost. You can put that extra money (you would have paid for a lower deductible policy) into your health savings account. Then when the need arises you can use the saved money for your higher deductible.
Now let’s assume you just had a new baby, and you have 2 more children under the age of 10. Chances are, these children will need well baby and well children visits to their pediatrician. It would not be advisable in this instance to opt for a high deductible to save on insurance premiums. It might be to your advantage to buy a personal policy, a group policy for the self-employed. It is also a good idea, if you have a spouse that still punches a clock, you may be able to get health insurance coverage through your spouse’s policy.
No matter what your situation is, there is a health insurance plan that can be designed to fit your needs. When you go online for a quote, the next step is to talk to an agent. You can buy online without ever speaking face to face with someone, but experience has shown me that sitting down face to face with an agent from a local insurance provider can be the best way to decide on the amount and type of health insurance coverage that you need.
