Many moms are now choosing to stay at home with their children and earn a living on-line. But what can you use for insurance if you are self employed? This is especially necessary when filling prescriptions for your children, such as vitamins! There are many programs that offer discounts, but did you know that many of the grocery store brand vitamins have the exact same nutrients as prescription ones. Also some insurance plans no longer cloak prenatal vitamins because they are available over the counter.
So for certain items you can check and see if they are available over the counter, and if they are how much cheaper they may be? There is one company known as “Nace” and they have very reasonable rates on their insurance and great perks for the self employed. You can do a search on-line for this company. There is also Ameriplan USA, which is not actually insurance but they give you a discount fee for services. As a stay at home mom you may even think about selling it as well. Then your plan will be allotment of your monthly broker fee.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and Kaiser Permanente both offer individual and family plans. But Kaiser is very picky about who they are willing to accept. Coverage is good if you are accepted. Blue Cross/ Blue Shield has a few less medical requirements and very good coverage. You will also want to compare the rates of fees of these companies. For Example Blue Cross/Blue Shield can be pretty expensive. If you are not obvious if a particular insurance company has individual plans there is nothing wrong with calling and asking if they do. It is also much better to go to the company directly the through an agent.
The agent does not really care about you, they are only interested in getting you the plan that gives them the most commission. There is also something called a Health Savings Fable Plan. This plan was set up for self employed people and the best part if that it’s 100% tax deductible. Basically its a PPO, and you have a very low monthly payment, but the deductible is usually a lot higher. With this plan you usually have less out of pocket expenses. Once you have paid your maximum amount then the rest of the year would be fully covered. You usually have to pay a definite percentage.
The down side for moms is that it does not screen maternity leave. So you will usually have to pay for all of your expenses. You may think about opening a separate account and saving up to cover these expenses. This is especially necessary if you are planning to have a baby. Also try checking what programs are offered by your state. They usually have special programs location aside for moms who work at home. A good place to launch is your local Social Services office they should know all about the programs offered to self employed moms. Or you can do the research your self and check out your states website. Most states list all of the programs they offer on their.
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Filed under Family Health Insurance Self Employed by on May 10th, 2011. 
As a self-employed writer, I don’t have a set retirement date. It would be tempting to keep putting off the unpleasant task of facing my own death and what happens after. However, as scheduled as my work life is with deadlines and such, it would be ironic if my death did not happen on schedule and my heirs were left with a mess to trim up. No, I’m not rich and I don’t have a huge estate (at least not yet), but since I am so responsible in other areas of my life, I feel compelled to be responsible about my death too. Plus, I hate to fail and those who fail to plan . . . fail. So, in fairness to my husband and children and because I contain a business (which complicates my estate), it’s time to come up with an estate plan.
Few people devour estate planning because it requires thinking about an poor topic – death. It’s important to have a basic estate plan in place if you are self-employed. Consider the benefits:
You determine what happens when you die – who gets what, who doesn’t obtain a thing and a piece of paper makes it legal – your heirs must obey your wishes – or at least if your heirs don’t act right once you are gone they’ll have a legal document over which to argue.
A view ensures that your family is taken care of after you die. My father takes the whole planning thing one step further and has left me detailed written instructions about not only what he wants, but how to bring it about and where to find every piece of important information. I plan to follow suit so those I leave behind will have a road device.
As a sole proprietor, the obligations of your business as well as the assets of your business are considered your personal assets and liabilities. You’ll want to mediate about how your estate should handle your business obligations and to whom you want to bequeath your business assets. With these business items flowing over into your personal items, estate planning (and having adequate insurance) is all the more important for the self-employed.
You can’t decide who gets what if you don’t know what the “what” is, thus, you’ll need to take stock of your stuff. Ask yourself who gets your stuff and who should handle your stuff if you are unable to (that senior moment becomes permanent in other words). You might also consider yourself and choose who should handle decisions related to your medical care if you are unable. The answers to these questions are set in a few legal documents that I will discuss below.
You Do Have a Will – Right?
Dying intestate (without a will) can be costly and leaves you with no say over who gets your stuff. A will lets you name who should look after your children and who gets (or doesn’t get) your stuff. I submit that those of you who take the “who cares, I’ll be dead and won’t know anyway” approach may be shortsighted.
Your Living Will
A living will states your wishes for the kind of life-sustaining medical intervention you want, or don’t want, in the event that you become terminally ill or unable to communicate. This is the “pull the plug” or “don’t pull the plug” decision. I don’t know about you, but I want my wishes documented so that I’m not still here five years after I’m not all here if you salvage my drift.
Power of Attorney and Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare
I already have the occasional “senior moment.” If that gets worse I want to have already granted someone I trust the power of attorney. That person, also known as my “attorney in fact” can manage my financial affairs. Why bother? Because if you become incapacitated without having assigned power of attorney, the court will appoint a guardian for you. What if the person the court appoints does not like you or is an idiot? The court may even charge your estate when it puts the moron (or frenemy) in charge of your affairs so it will pay to select someone before the need arises.
The durable power of attorney for healthcare states who is in charge of your healthcare if you are incapacitated. Make sure you name someone you trust with your life because you will literally be doing that with this document.
Your Trust
I went to school with a few trust fund babies. But trusts are not the exclusive purview of the rich. If you are self-employed, you’ll want a trust to handle your business after you are gone, even if it’s just the disposition of the assets and the closing of the doors. There are details to believe – How should the closing of your business be handled? What about the business assets? Who gets the proceeds of the sale?
A trust is also a proper idea if you want to place conditions on when your heirs inherit – such as graduating from college or reaching a certain age. Or, if you want your children from a first marriage to get your estate after your surviving spouse dies.
Trusts can also help you and your spouse maximize your estate-tax exemptions. I had thought that I would leave everything to my husband. He knows my wishes and will make distinct the children secure their fair share of the stuff I have accumulated over a lifetime. Unfortunately, that’s not good planning because what I’m really doing is not using my estate tax exemption and though-provoking everything over to my husband’s estate when he dies. With his estate increase, the children get his with a bigger estate tax bill. A trust can minimize the tax bill and minimizing tax bills is always a good belief.
You Can Give Before you are Gone
Rather than concentrating solely on what happens after death, a complete estate plan also considers how much to give while you are alive and are around to feel the joy of giving. For instance, you can pay for your someone’s education. The person doesn’t even have to be related to you. As long as you give the money directly to the college or university, there is no limit on the amount you can give. You can also give up to $12,000 a year in cash or assets to as many people as you like.
This planning thing appeals to me. I always have a “Opinion B” for most situations anyway, so I might as well plan my estate. I hope you take the fall and do the same. As always, it’s a expedient idea to consult with an expert.
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Filed under Family Health Insurance Self Employed by on Mar 28th, 2011.
Have you ever been self-employed, and tried to justify not having health insurance? Unfortunately many freelancers and micro-business owners don’t have any form of health insurance. They are living on a skim and a prayer that nothing major happens to them. If you don’t have health insurance, and you judge you can justify not having any, I hope you will change your mind after I tell you a true story about two friends who had children get hurt. Neither friend could afford health coverage. The names in quotations in the following paragraphs are not my friend’s real names. I have changed them for their right to privacy. If you don’t think you really need health insurance read on:
One of my best friends, “Alice,” is a nurse. She is an agency nurse, just as I archaic to be. (When you work for an agency, you are not an employee; you are an independent contractor.) Alice’s son, “Jason,” went swimming a couple of summers ago. Frolicking around, her 17 year old son took a flying leap off the rope into the brook. Diminutive did he know when he let go of the rope he would get stuck in a sandbar and break his leg. The poor guy hit in the shallow water and spun like a corkscrew. He broke his leg in 3 places. The worst fragment for Jason was that he had to suffer several days before he could have surgery to set his leg, because his mom had no insurance. Jason finally got the operation he needed, only because his mom got him into a hospital in Augusta that will treat indigent people.
If it had not been for the medical center in Augusta, GA, Jason might never have gotten his broken leg fixed. We don’t have free health care here in the United States, so it is imperative, if you have children to have health insurance. You never know what could happen. You could have a car wreck that leaves you with hardware sticking out of your flesh holding your bones together.
Another friend of mine, “Julie” is a medical transcriptionist. She does not carry insurance either, because she doesn’t produce enough in her micro-business to pay the premiums. Her daughter, “Anne,” spent the night over at her girlfriend’s house. Anne and her friend “Sara” get the shining opinion to jump off a 12-foot balcony at Sara’s house. They proceed to couch pillows down on the floor and then they climb the stairs to the balcony. Sara jumps first and she is glorious. Sara is only about 60 pounds, because she is only 8. Anne, on the other hand, is 13 and a little on the heavy side.
After Sara made a flying leap and landed in the soft pillows and lived to laugh about it, Anne makes her flying leap. She hits ankle first like a load of bricks. She broke every bone in her foot. Sara’s mom knew nothing about this because she was working in her office at the other end of their house. Sara’s mom came running when she heard the screaming.
Anne’s mom, Julie, didn’t have health insurance either, but she had one advantage that Jason’s mom, Alice, didn’t have. Julie’s daughter was covered by Medicaid, which is a state funded health insurance. Anne had surgery right away. She had all kinds of hardware sticking out of her feet. She was in a wheelchair for almost a year. Thanks to the care that she got she can walk normally now.
It’s really dim that there are people who don’t have access to medical care simply because they don’t have the money to pay for the health insurance premium. In our country, access to health care is not a basic human right. You have to pay for it. If you are admitted to the ER the doctor has to see you. You will not be turned away, but you will only catch treatment for that visit. You’ll come by charged thousands of dollars for that visit also. If you can’t pay, don’t worry. You’ll just be sent bill after bill and when you can’t pay them your account be sent to a collection agency. When time goes by, and you don’t pay the collector, the collection’s department can select you to court to sue you. It’s a unlit state of affairs when you can’t get health care when you need it most.
As a self-employed person, I would suggest checking with the Chamber of Commerce in the county in which you live. The Chamber of Commerce may be able to advise you which groups to join to get affordable health insurance. Sixty percent of self-employed people don’t have any form of health insurance. You really cannot afford to be without it. There is a group called NASE (National Association for the Self-employed) that is the largest resource for self-employed people.
Sources:
Personal knowledge
And
http://news.nase.org/nase_about.asp
http://www.uschamber.com/issues/index/health/healthcov.htm
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Filed under Family Health Insurance Self Employed by on Feb 8th, 2011.