#086: Health Insurance Options for U.S. Freelancers

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey there. Thank you for joining me for episode 86 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. My name is Ed Gandhia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. As a quick reminder, you can find the detailed show notes for this episode by going to b2b launcher.com forward/episode86 so this week's episode I think is incredibly relevant and important if you live in the United States. And before I get into it, I did want to let you know I just don't want to forget this that I've just opened enrollment to the 2x project. The application process for the 2x project is just open. This is my flagship coaching and training program for established writers and copywriters who are already earning somewhere between 30,000 and $80,000 a year or the part time equivalent of that, and who want to double that income over the next 18 months. So if you fit that category that sounds like you, make sure to check it out. This is the last opportunity I'll have for enrollment for a long while. Certainly the last one this year. Applications are coming in actually pretty quickly. I think we are going to sell out this time around. So check it out at 2xb2b.com forward/info as in information 2xb2b.com forward slash info all right, so back to the topic. I don't need to tell you guys that having access to health insurance used to be a challenge for many of us in the us. If you were self employed in the US up until a few years ago, this is a huge problem. Especially if you had any kind of pre existing condition. That sounds like pre existing conditions would be the really big stuff. But my experience has been just myself and talking to others. Even little things that may have cropped up a couple of times in your life were considered by insurance companies pre existing conditions and made it very, very difficult for you to either get health insurance or get some health insurance policy that was even somewhat affordable. The passage of the Affordable care Act in 2010, also called Obamacare, has made it possible for everyone in the US regardless of pre existing conditions, to finally purchase health insurance. That's good news and I'm not going to get into the politics of all that. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I avoid politics in religion on this show like the plague. I think it's always a good idea in these formats to do that, at least when you do what I do. So this is good news. I mean, just at least in terms of what allows us to do and the fact that we can all have access to health insurance without the restrictions that we had before. Cost is a different issue, and we'll talk about that here. But the bad news about Obamacare is that the law is very complex. I found that most people don't understand their options or where they should shop for plans. I myself didn't know until very recently. I wasn't really sure. I've given up trying to decipher the complex issue. I've done a lot of research and I still found lots of mixed and contradictory information out there. So instead of just trying to decipher this on my own and give you guys kind of the summary of what I found, I recently sought the help of an industry expert. And my guest for the show is a gentleman by the name of Jeff Smedsrud and he is the co founder and CEO of Healthcare.com Jeff is a leader in the health insurance industry. He's been growing insurance marketing companies for over 20 years. He has served as a healthcare reform advocate for much of his career and he's intimately familiar with all the ins and outs of this new law and how it impacts self employed professionals in the U.S. so with that, let's get right into that interview.