Health insurance options for owner-only businesses
Sole proprietors often cannot buy small group plans because carriers require at least one non-owner employee on payroll. Meanwhile, individual plans and ICHRAs carry high costs that make coverage unaffordable, forcing some single-employee business owners to spend the majority of their income just to stay insured.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Staying on a domestic partner's insurance planDid this help you?
- 2Looking into ICHRA plans through services like ThatchDid this help you?
- 3Exploring bundled payroll and benefits providers like Collective, Gusto, or ADPDid this help you?
- 4Looking into creative setup optionsDid this help you?
- 5Searching outside the ACA marketplaceDid this help you?
- 6Reaching out to independent agents rather than agents of one specific providerDid this help you?
- 7Considering big national insurance companies instead of local onesDid this help you?
- 8Relying on state Medicaid programs for children while purchasing marketplace insurance for adultsDid this help you?
- 9Holding a spouse's corporate retail job specifically to obtain benefitsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We went from 1200 a month to 3100 a month. All money goes to insurance.”source ↗
“I've reached out to two local companies, the first I reached out three times, the second twice, and have not even HEARD back from them. I want to go with a local company instead of one of the big national companies, just because I believe in supporting local, but at this point I'm losing my mind a bit.”source ↗
“How the hell are you affording insurance?!?”source ↗
“Insurance is an absolute killer, until you grow out of the pain band of revenue.”source ↗
“She works for a non-profit and we found out that the rates are going to almost double this year, which would take the majority of her paycheck, basically working for insurance.”source ↗
“Owner only businesses can't buy a small group plan in most states, carriers want at least one non-owner employee on payroll, and an ICHRA can't reimburse a sole proprietor with nobody to reimburse.”source ↗
“Has anyone had success accessing a group health plan outside of the ACA marketplace as a solo practice/business of one?”source ↗
“My daughter has an out-of-network doctor she really needs to keep, but in NJ there's no out-of-network coverage available.”source ↗
“I'm a 1099 physician.”source ↗
“When i left my last job to start my business I paid for cobra. $2300 pet month. Once we got him on different insurance we went to the exchange. Now it's a little under $1600 per month, with 20k out of pocket...”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4How to manage money as a new 1099 contractor
- 14How to handle running a business completely by yourself
- 11How to quit a corporate job to start your own business
- 4How should a new shop owner pay themselves?
- 2Can I start selling before my LLC is officially approved?
- 19How to plan a business from scratch without missing key steps