Health Insurance for the Self Employed Professional

If you are self-employed, or even planning to become self-employed at some point in the future, you need to seriously think about obtaining health insurance for yourself (and possibly your family, if they are not going to be covered under another family member's plan). In this day and age, it is simply too risky to try to go without any type of health care coverage, but you should know up front that it can be quite expensive to try to pay for coverage completely on your own.

As a self-employed individual, you should not have any difficulty finding a wide array of insurance options from which to choose. The most difficult part of the whole thing will be finding a plan that offers you the coverage that you need at a price that you can reasonably afford.

Weighing Your Options

Of course, the younger you are, the better the possibility that you will be able to obtain health insurance at an affordable rate. While age is certainly the primary factor, your overall health status is pretty much equally important.

For example, if you have a history of a chronic medical condition, particularly one in which you have to receive regular treatments or medications, you should be prepared to have a bit more difficulty than healthier people when you start looking for health insurance plans. How much extra money a particular medical condition will cost you will mostly depend upon how serious your condition happens to be.

If you have chronic allergy problems and have to take prescription medicine and/or receive allergy shots, then it's probably not going to affect your insurance rates all that much. If, on the other hand, you have been diagnosed with cancer or some other serious illness, you will have a very difficult time obtaining coverage with any company.

To make a policy more affordable, you might also want to consider choosing a coverage plan with a higher deductible. This will generally allow you to obtain the coverage you want at a price you can afford. The downside, of course, is that you will have to pay more money out of pocket for any medical problems that might arise.

If you are married and your spouse is employed, then you will probably be better off adding yourself to his or her policy at work than you would be trying to find an independent policy on your own. Adding on a spouse to an employer's policy generally only costs an extra one to two hundred dollars per month, but of course these figures can vary greatly between employers.

Use the Internet

If you are not married or your spouse is also self-employed, then you might want to check out ehealthinsurance.com for some guidance and quotes on policies. This site is frequently recommended by Money magazine and Kiplinger, so you should be able to feel pretty good about visiting this site for some valuable information. If you are not comfortable doing things on your own (or you just don't like the idea of obtaining insurance through the internet), then consider shopping around your local area for a reputable insurance agent.

Insurance agents will sit down and talk with you one on one about your particular needs and will do their best to find a policy for you that offers everything you need and that is affordable. Many people feel more comfortable working with someone who is approachable and available for periodic in-person visits, and if this happens to describe you, simply conduct a search online to find an agent that you think you will like and make an appointment.