Medical Insurance For Small Business Owners
People who own their own small business face many challenges, financial and otherwise. Finding time is one of them. Often, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to juggle running the business, spending time with the family, and taking care of their health. Many self employed business owners neglect their health because there’s just too much on their plate. Because of financial reasons and because it often isn’t a priority, many of them don’t even have medical coverage. Medical insurance for small business owners is expensive and there is obviously no employer to offer assistance in paying for it. Below are some ideas on how to find affordable health insurance for business owners. Securing coverage is the first step to taking better care of your health.
1) Use your networking group to find others in need of coverage. Many small business owners are members of business groups and/or networking groups. If they aren’t, they probably should be because the contacts and referrals you can make in them are invaluable. Another major benefit is the group you can form of self employed people who are all in need of health insurance. Get a bunch of people together and apply for individual policies as a group. It’s the same thing employers do to get major rate discounts for their employees.
2) A discounted health plan may work for you temporarily. While these plans are not a permanent fix, they can at least provide you adequate coverage at very low rates until you are able to afford traditional medical insurance. They won’t provide coverage for major surgeries or other procedures of significant cost, but they will make office visits affordable.
3) State run programs are becoming better and more plentiful. In an attempt to help turn the economy around, small business owners are getting more help from state governments than ever before. There are now health insurance programs available to self employed people that are subsidized by state governments. Often, these plans can even be free of cost to those who qualify. Contact your state health department for information on plans available in your area.