And while changes may be coming down the pike with the passage of health care reform in March 2010, most of those changes won't take effect until 2014, though a few changes will happen sooner. If you’re in the need of self employed health insurance right now, the wait for 2014 may be long.
Here are some of current options for self employed health insurance:
Spouse’s Employer Sponsored Health Insurance
This is likely your best bet for health insurance for the whole family, if you are married and your spouse has a health insurance plan through his or her employer. Employer sponsored health insurance tends to be much cheaper than any plan purchased individually. You may have to wait for the next open enrollment period to sign up for your spouse's health insurance. However, there sometimes are special enrollment options outside open enrollment that may be an available to you, so check with the plan’s administrator.
COBRA a.k.a. Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
COBRA gives people the option to continue on their employer sponsored plan, usually for 18 months, after they’ve left the company. So if you are leaving a job to start a home business, this is an option. The problem with COBRA is that the premiums are high, and there’s no flexibility in plan choice. You have the same health insurance as you had as an employee. You can’t change options to save money. And now you must pay all the premiums, whereas when you were an employee your employer likely covered some of the cost of the premiums.If you lost your job in 2008 or 2009, you may be eligible for the stimulus package relief COBRA Premium Reduction of 2009.
Guilds, Unions or Professional or Membership Organizations
Employers are able to pool together their employees and spread the risk across a large group, thus lowering premiums for the entire group. When you buy individual health insurance, that doesn’t happen and so the cost is higher and you may be denied coverage. Other groups like guilds, unions and other membership organizations can pool together their members to get better premiums and coverage too.
So if you belong to a group like this, investigate their health insurance options. You might be able to buy a policy for yourself or for the whole family. The discount you may receive in health insurance can be well worth the dues of the membership organization.
Some examples of membership organizations:
Buying Individual Health Insurance
Buying your own health insurance is typically more expensive and has more limits and exclusions than joining a group health insurance plan. This is especially true when you are shopping for insurance for your whole family.But if you are not eligible for any group insurance plans, this might be your best bet.However, you need to read all the fine print and look very carefully at potential policies to be sure the plan will provide the coverage you expect when you need it. You may want to find a licensed insurance agent in your state to help you with this. Or you can compare insurance policies online at eHealthinsurance.com.
High Risk Insurance Pools
For some buying individual coverage is more than expensive; it's impossible. If you or your spouse has a preexisting condition, insurance companies currently may deny coverage. If this happens (or premiums are extremely high because of a pre-existing condition), investigate a government righ risk insurance pool. As part of health care reform, the federal government instituted high risk pool in 2010. And more than half the states already offer them, though they vary widely in coverage and cost. Go to www.healthcare.gov for more information about enrolling in a high risk pool.
State Sponsored Plans
Different from high risk pools but still sponsored by the government are Medicaid and Medicare. Eligibility for these are based on your age or income. Even if you are not eligible for either of these, your children may still be eligible for government health insurance through the SCHIP program. For more information on what insurance is available to children in your state go to Insure Kids Now.