Recently started your own business, and wonder where you can get health insurance? Read this, and find out.
If you’re one of those brave individuals who have set out to become your own boss, you probably won’t have the luxury of work benefits at your fingertips. There is (to begin with) COBRA or the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, but that will only extend those previous benefits for 18 months at the most, so what then? The thing you might be most concerned about is self-employed health insurance. Self-employed health insurance can be difficult to find if you don’t know where to start.
The first thing you might consider is to search on the open market for an individually underwritten policy. These can even sometimes come in benefits packages, where you’ll get the insurance along with some others, which is a definite plus. Another option would be to check with your local insurance department, or one that is close by, to see if there’s any place near you that offers health insurance for home-based businesses. You might be surprised by what you find. A lot of insurance companies may offer this sort of thing. Remember not to make a decision right off the bat, however.
Locate multiple insurance companies that offer the same coverage, and cross-check them to make sure you choose the one that works best for you. If you’re married, and your spouse has the work benefits that you need, you may not even have to get self-employed health insurance. Usually, if your spouse has health insurance out of his/her own workplace, the insurance will cover you as well. There are many advantages to this, one of them being that when your spouse adds his or her family to the insurance plan, the additional coverage typically won’t be denied, even for pre-existing conditions.
Some states offer what is known as guaranteed-issue health insurance, which basically allows you to apply for insurance out of other companies doing business in the state, and you will be accepted regardless of your pre-existing medical conditions. Remember to check with the business before dropping any coverage you already have, however, because some of them have a different idea of what pre-existing medical conditions are, and they might not always offer you the same benefits as everybody else in the company. Searching for self-employed health insurance is no easy task, but it is very rewarding once you’ve actually achieved it.
