Question about health insurance for self-employeds...

[LizzyBee]

I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own business because I could make more money in less time by working for myself. But, I am basically uninsurable since my medicine costs $96k/year and I have very expensive labwork quarterly. I have insurance now, but I think the rules are different for self-employed people, so I'm not sure I could buy insurance for myself even if I have no lapse in coverage. Does it make any difference if I formed a corporation and was an employee of the corporation? Alternatively, if I hired dh as my assistant and he was a bona fide employee, I could name him as the policyholder and I could be included as his dependent. Would I still be uninsurable in that situation? If so, how many employees or partners would I have to have in order to avoid being turned down for a group policy?

 

Thanks!

[PeterPan]

Call an insurance rep and ask them.

[LillyMama]

Call an insurance rep and ask them.

 

:iagree:

 

Small group laws are different in every state, and they are all going through lots of changes with the onset of Obamacare. I can tell you that, historically, a company could not be turned down for insurance if it qualified as a small group. They could be charged the maximum rate based on underwriting but not turned down. Typically small groups are 5-49 employees. When I was in the business, carriers were pretty diligent to make sure that companies were actual companies, not your friends and children who, conveniently, waived coverage, leaving only yourself and your husband. I personally had a handful of clients politely told they were committing insurance fraud and were dropped from their policies. I would think, in the current climate, that is something they're looking at even more closely. So, unless you have 5 true employees (including yourself) and you double check this is true with an agent, I wouldn't even bother to go much further down this path.

[LucyStoner]

I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own business because I could make more money in less time by working for myself.

 

You may find that any extra money and then some from working this way will go right to insurance.

 

You will need more than 2 people for a business group. Most companies only do individual policies until there are 4-8 employees in total. Individual plans are notoriously limited in coverage (limited prescription coverage, high rate of coinsurance) and high in cost. With 100K of medical costs a year I would be hard pressed to give up any job that offered large group medical benefits. I do not have any expensive health issues and even still I doubt that if I were not married to a man with great insurance, I would have been able to start my business without either going uninsured or paying a LARGE percentage of my income for insurance.