One of the down falls to being self employed is health insurance. Who do you guys get health insurance through?

The free clinic! :D

Well if your in NY (USA) ... they have a plan called Health NY for self-employeed people and people not otherwise elidgable for health insurance.

Well, through the benefit of having employees I am able to get company coverage through the local Chamber of Commerce.

But before I did that (before I had enough employees to qualify) I did an end-run by getting my insurance through an industry group where, honestly, I was only a small amount involved in that industry. However, it was a good way to get relatively inexpensive insurance.

Every state is different, but here in Massachusetts you can pay a $25 fee, collect about 10 signatures, and because a Notary Public. Once I became a Notary Public, I paid the $35 per year fee to the National Notary Association, and through them got my health insurance as part of an industry group insurance plan.

Yeah, I worked full-time doing web hosting and only really notarized a few documents a month, but it worked (and, honestly, being able to honestly claim I am a Notary Public is also not such a bad thing) and I got relatively inexpensive health insurance out of it. And, since it doesn't cost much to stay a Notary or to stay a part of the NNA, I know that if I ever find myself in the situation where I need health insurance again I know where I can get it.

As always, YMMV since every state has different rules for Notary Publics (from what I understand, for example, it's *MUCH* harder to become a Notary in California than it is here).

Good luck,

Jason

We provide medical benefits to the team via http://www.unitedhealthcare.com/

The above wont help for teams smaller than 5 (I think was the number) but they've done well for us and may be worth looking into for the 'over 5' member teams...

I joined The National Association for the Self-Employed a couple of years ago, specifically for health insurance.

http://nase.org/