Self-Employed and Left Behind

The self-employed entrepreneurs small business owners, and operators are in a group of their own when it comes to the health insurance reform that is beginning to filter throughout the country. The rising cost of health insurance coverage is going to affect every citizen, but the self-employed entrepreneurs and the small business owners will feel the impact as much as our senior citizens will.

All citizens who choose to refuse even low-cost health insurance will fall into the same category as the self-employed and the small business. All with be issued a fine or an additional tax for refusing to conform to the government rules, laws, and regulations. However, the self-employed health insurance tax will eventually cause many who are currently self-employed to close down their business.

Small businesses across the country will also be assessed a fine or tax depending on the number of employees at any one time. The one loophole that is open for them to travel down is to hire less than fifty employees and have the majority of the employees work part-time or full-time seasonally. This will also apply to self-employed individuals who would like to continue in their trade with the hopes of growing their business.

The self-employed health insurance will be very expensive and they will find the health care they are about to receive is less than adequate when compared to what they have had in past years. No longer will the self-employed entrepreneur have the ability to purchase self-employed health insurance through a group health insurance plan such as the local Chamber of Commerce.

Indeed, many who are self-employed do not carry any type of affordable health insurance plan. Under the health care reform bill, they will not only lose the current health insurance they possess but will also be assessed a fine or tax because these are the individuals who fall through the cracks. They will no longer have the means to afford such an expensive individual health insurance policy and are not eligible for government-run single-payer health insurance.

The self-employed entrepreneur will also miss catastrophic health insurance, high deductible health savings accounts, and low premium health insurance because their annual income to be eligible must remain below four times the poverty level. In today’s terms, four times the poverty level equals just fewer than ninety thousand dollars per year. Each year they refuse to purchase self-employed health insurance, the higher the penalty fee or tax will rise.