How Do You Get Health Insurance If You’re Self-Employed?
Being self-employed could mean anything from owning your own business to working a steady freelance gig. Whatever the deal, you’re walking the tightrope of being your own boss and being in charge of everything including your health insurance!
So, let’s talk about the options if you plan on doing the self-employed gig for a short time or if you know it’s something in your long-term plans.
Health Insurance If You’re Self-Employed for a Short Time
The world of work can be unpredictable. You might feel pretty steady on the rung of your career ladder and then boom! Life happens and you’re on a different path for a while.
Let’s pretend we have a friend named Ollie. He just left a job with a company where he was signed up for their group health insurance plan. But now that he’s left, Ollie has turned to freelance work and boosting his knowledge with a few courses on the side. He plans to get back into the full-time working world as soon as he can.
What are his short-term solutions for health insurance in between? Let’s take a look!
Okay, Ollie could carry on with his previous employer’s group health insurance plan with COBRA health insurance. COBRA lets you temporarily keep the same employer-based health plan you had at your old job (usually for up to 18 months). But Ollie will pay more for it each month because his employer is no longer footing some of the premium.
Short-Term Health Insurance
Another option for Ollie (if he wants to save money on his premium) is short-term health insurance. How short of a term are we talking? Well, it could be anything up to three months.1 Ollie could sign up for a short-term plan outside of the usual enrollment period—which is a plus—and his monthly premiums will be low. But there’s a reason for this! Short-term policies have high out-of-pocket costs and are unlikely to cover Ollie’s pre-existing conditions if he has any. So he should check with the insurance provider before signing up.