Self-employment is highly common in the modern days with baby-boomers and senior citizens starting their own smart ventures, either to get supplemental income or to keep them occupied during their retirement period or to establish their own careers and do what they always wanted to pursue during their younger days. There are many middle-aged people and young adults who opt for this kind of employment to have a career change.
Reports reveal that these self-employed individuals opt out of buying a suitable affordable health insurance plan in order to cut down the expenses on health care. They sometimes think that investing on a health insurance policy is a waste of money and this can be used for other useful purposes in the business. This is a huge mistake as these individuals do not sometimes realize what kind of expenses they would incur in case they are not covered by a suitable health insurance plan.
Hospitalization charges could sky rocket to thousands of dollars and it is even worse in case you end up in sudden surgeries or you are in need of emergency medical attention. Typically, a heart surgery could cost you about $100,000. It is not easy for an average person to bear this kind of an expense from their personal pocket.
These are good enough reasons for self-employed individuals to purchase a suitable self-employed health insurance. This would help these motivated individuals to secure their future peacefully and stop worrying about incurring huge unexpected sudden medical expenses in case serious illnesses crop up.
The number of self-employed individuals is not less in number. About 63% of the working population fall into this category or work in small businesses where the employers do not offer health insurance coverage. About 25% of the self-employed population is over 50 years which also means that they are highly prone to health disorders due to their old age. Hence, health insurance plan coverage is highly required for this population.
Every self-employed individual can protect himself or herself by medical insurance benefits through affordable individual health insurance plans or get insured through their own business corpus funds or get covered by their spouse’s insurance policy by getting registered as a dependant, or register in a federally run insurance program.
For example, senior citizens above 65 years are eligible for coverage under Medicare plans even if they choose to work further. However, they also need to have supplemental health insurance coverage for higher expenses as Medicare would not cover for many other health care expenses which are huge.
If you have just resigned from a corporate job, continue with the same health insurance scheme provided by your employer for a while through the COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) scheme. This may not be feasible for a long time as you have to bear the premium costs on your own and the corporate premiums may be slightly on the higher side for you. But do not discontinue the health insurance coverage until you have found another suitable medical insurance plan.