One of the biggest challenges faced by the self-employed population is the procurement of health insurance. Getting health insurance is a costly affair although you can utilize one of the existent methods of getting around the costs.

The best ways to get a health insurance in an inexpensive manner is for one partner to continue working at his or her regular job while the other manages the affairs of their business. Premiums for family health insurance are quite reasonable if you are holding a job. It also depends on employers’ contributions and their ability to offer a group rate. Either way, it turns out to be less expensive than purchasing two health insurance policies.

If you have already purchased a good policy, retain it for sometime after you leave you regular job to become self-employed. According to the COBRA act of 1986, you are entitled to the usual group rates, devoid of the contribution of your previous employer, for one year and six months after leaving your job. However, this law won’t protect you if you are fired from a company or if you have worked for an company that hires less than twenty people.

If you are single parent as well as self-employed, you will be happy to know that you are not on your own. You can join a good organization for the self-employed. Such organizations combine the resources of their members to get good group rates. These rates are not be as good as a large company might be able to afford, but you can save quite a bit when compared to the premiums you will have to pay as a single parent who wants a policy to cover the entire family.

Several people would rather not have an insurance policy. But as a single parent or an expecting mother, you will be forced to visit the family physician often. In this case, you could also go in for a health savings account or a supplementary health insurance to help you cover the costs.

Some states make available public assistance to cover basic health care in case of children. As a self-employed individual, unfortunately, you might not be able to avail of this service. In any case, determine about the availablity of such a program in your state and find out if you can avail of it.

You have to carefully consider the costs involved if you want to start a family and become self-employed at the same time. During the initial phase of being self-employed, health insurance could be the largest expense you will have to tackle.



By: Abhishek Agarwal

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