Health insurance for self-employed

[Phantom Spike]

I searched for other threads on this topic, but everything that came up was several years old and not very helpful. I was warned that reactivating those threads might be considered "spamming".

As a physician who's been employed throughout my career (getting a W-2) planning to transition to being self-employed (full-time locums) with a 1099, one of my biggest financial concerns is health insurance coverage. What are other self-employed physicians doing? I would only need coverage for myself, highest possible deductible (I am fairly healthy right now, taking no prescription medications and with no chronic medical conditions). Even catastrophic coverage, if such a thing is available, would be a consideration. As an employed individual, I have been contributing to an HSA, which I will still continue to do once self-employed.

Where should I begin shopping? What rates should I expect? What kind of coverage would you recommend? While trying to budget for a career without a regular paycheck, the health insurance part is the hardest to account for, as I have no idea what I'll be paying.

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[Saddleshoes]

Start with the AMA insurance program. (Are you an AMA member?)

 

[Dusn]

Search the Affordable care act website healthcare.gov

 

[Sushirolls]

There's some information on this in the Psychiatry Forum threads.

Look up the state based exchange for your state. See what's available to you on the exchange. Plug in some numbers and see what happens. If need be plug and chug some numbers in neighboring states exchange if you can't find one for yours.

Then buy one through the exchange, but better yet, just go directly to the insurance company of interest and buy the plan directly. Anticipate single, non-smoking, adult with no dependents chasing after a high deductible plan that is HSA eligible to be about $250-500/month.

I'm paying ~$1050 for a whole family for a HDHP plan that is HSA qualified, then funding the HSA fully ~$7000/year, and buying dental insurance separate $2400/year comes out to 22k per year for family. Loving it.

 

[RangerBob]

Do insurance companies look favorably on the self-employed? I've always thought it made insurers doubt the potential client's ability to pay. I've been successfully working in the trade for 10 years, my family has insurance, but we are all officially employed. To be honest, taking out an insurance policy for the self-employed sounds as fantastic to me as discussing articles about million-dollar life insurance contributions on lifeinsuranceblog.net. Can anyone share their experience here? I want to know what I can expect if I decide to open a store and register a sole proprietorship.

I don't understand the bolded text--can you elaborate what you mean here?

I'm self insured and other than having to pay more for it than my employed colleagues, I've had no issues.