The Struggles Of The Self Employed: What You Need To Know About Qualifying For Group Health Insurance

Posted on: 16 May 2022

Many self-employed individuals assume that they will not qualify for group health insurance plans because they do not work for a traditional employer who offers these plans as part of a benefits package. Consequently, self-employed individuals commonly struggle with the task of finding affordable health insurance. If you have found yourself dealing with this same struggle, you should know that the assumption that you will not qualify for group health insurance rates may not be correct. The reason for this is that employers represent just one of the many types of groups which can apply for these health insurance plans. In order to take advantage of the benefits that group health insurance has to offer, you can form a group using alternate criteria. Below you can learn more about some of the criteria you can use to form your own insurance group.

Profession

One of the most common criteria that is used to form a group for health insurance purposes is a person's profession. This is a great option for many self-employed people since self employment is most common in specific professions. For instance, it is quite common for musicians, artists, and writers to be self-employed. Choosing to form a group with other people who share your same profession will allow you to take advantage of many benefits that often come along with working for a larger employer. This includes the benefit of qualifying for group health insurance rates. 

Location

Another common criteria that is used when forming health insurance groups is a person's location. This criteria is most often used by self-employed people who are not able to form a group with other members of their profession due to the small nature of their chosen field. For example, a motivational speaker is not likely to find many other people in their area that share their same profession and are also interested in forming a health insurance group. For these individuals, choosing to use location as their defining criteria can help them to find more members for their health insurance group. 

Affiliation

There are many different organizations that a person can be affiliated with in their life. While being affiliated with a specific employer is the most common type of affiliation used for group health insurance plans, you can choose to form a group based on any other affiliation you may have as well. For example, you may wish to form a group based on an affiliation with a place of religious worship or a community organization. Look into group health insurance for more information.

Share