If you are self-employed, you may find yourself confused about navigating the new health insurance system.
Like many people who work for themselves, you are probably wondering:
- how to take care of your individual health insurance needs;
- where and how to find affordable medical insurance;
- what you should do about dental insurance;
- what is the health insurance marketplace and how to make sense of it;
- whether you or your family can qualify for cheap health insurance;
- and whether you or your family can qualify for free health insurance.
Don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place.
This website cuts through the clutter and provides simple, easy-to-understand answers to your questions about self-employed health insurance plans.
There is also good news that in some circumstances, you can receive special breaks that will enable you to get low-cost health insurance, and, yes, free health insurance for your family.
We even have a clean, simple method to help you see exactly how much you can expect to pay for health insurance and how much tax credit subsidies you can receive to help you get coverage.
Let’s take things step by step so that in no time you can begin to plan towards getting the best health insurance solutions for you and your family.
Do YOU Need Self Employed Health Insurance?
First of all, it must be emphasized that today, health insurance is no longer optional in America.
Some people who are self-employed may refuse to get health insurance coverage believing their independent status will enable them to escape the new system.
If they do so, they then bring upon themselves the added stress of trying to fly under the radar. If they get caught, or if they get ill and need medical care, it could cost them dearly.
So, to avoid that hassle and extra cost, it is worth the while to understand the system so you can choose the insurance plan that is best for you and your family from the get-go.
To know whether you have to get self-employed health insurance, you need to answer the following two questions:
1. Do you run an income-generating business?
2. Do you run your business without the assistance of any employee?
If you answered yes to BOTH questions, you will have to get a self-employed health insurance (which is also referred to as personal health insurance or individual health insurance).
Question 2 can be a bit tricky, so make sure you understand fully how the IRS defines employees.
Like many self-employed business people, you may not work alone. You may pay a family member and/or unrelated person to assist with various aspects of a project. The number of these individuals and their relationship to you is not really of consequence. These assistants may or may not be considered employees by the IRS based on various factors that indicate how far they are subject to your control.go straight to this link to get more details.
One of the key points is, if you hire someone to do work for you and you report this person’s income on a W-2 at the end of the year, then that person is considered an employee. This then would make you an employer. If this describes you, then as employers you would have to find health insurance plans for yourself and your employee(s) in a completely different system known as the SHOP Marketplace.
Now, on the other hand, if even you hire another self-employed person (or persons) like yourself to help you run your business (someone, or several persons, who you simply pay to get the job done and who file their taxes completely independent of you), then you will not be deemed an employer. You would still be considered a self-employed individual.
In this case, you will need to find private health insurance in what is called the Health Insurance Marketplace for yourself and members of your family who don’t otherwise have coverage.