Health Insurance Options for Self-Employment

With today's society allowing business to be performed easily with a click of a mouse, it is no wonder the internet has grown to allow the entire world to be connected 24 hours a day. It has allowed many people to quit their jobs, move across the world, and become self-employed. Individuals, who would have normally worked for a company, have now found the pleasures of being their own boss. Technology has opened many new age business practices where email and instant messaging is the preferred source of communication with clients. Becoming your own boss takes self-discipline. The certain luxuries like health insurance and a 401K plan, which we may have taken for granted while working for a corporation; now is an extra added expense which has to be considered.

Things like health insurance which is automatically included in many full time positions, now must be researched, compared, and considered. Usually the monthly cost can be much more expensive since the self-employed individual is now paying the entire bill, not just a small percentage.

What are the options available for a person who chooses to work for themselves?

If the individual was working full time for a corporation, many health insurance companies will offer 18 months of Cobra after leaving the company. The cost for Cobra is 102 percent and the plans coverage stays exactly the same. If you had Cigna as the health insurance provider under their PPO plan, when Cobra begins, all your doctors and benefits do not change. Prices range from $300 a month for an individual through $1500 a month for family coverage.

Self-employment allows deductions to be taken out for health insurance as well. The general rule is the health insurance has to be established through the business; just paying Cobra to continue the coverage does not follow this rule. By taking the full income made and subtracting half for your self-employment taxes, plus taking out any other deductions (IRA), the left over money is the amount you are allowed for health insurance expenses. This can only occur when you are fully paying your own benefits.