My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [67]
So where else can you find health insurance? Sites like HealthInsuranceInfo.net and AHIRC.org break down self-employed coverage options by state. If you’re ready to buy, many freelancers swear by the comparison-shopping site eHealthInsurance.com. You can also find health plans through a number of professional associations, from local chambers of commerce to the Freelancers Union in New York (which at the time of this writing offered coverage in thirty-one states) to industry-specific groups like Mediabistro, Graphic Artists Guild, and Professional Photographers of America.
The last time I needed a new insurance plan (after finishing a contract gig that had given me health coverage), I grabbed my calculator, added up the cost of my previous year’s doctors visits, compared the premiums and coverage of half a dozen individual and group plans, cross-referenced them with my estimated annual medical costs (that is, the ones I could predict), and checked to see which health plans my doctors participated in. Total pain in the ass. And not unlike trying to guess the number of jelly beans in a ten-gallon jar.
This year, I find myself shopping for a new health plan once again, as my monthly premiums recently spiked by 30 percent. Only this time, I plan to use an insurance agent a freelance pal recommended. (If you can’t get a recommendation, at least contact an agent who’s listed on NAHU.org.) Not only can an agent help you get the most bang for your insurance buck, they don’t cost you a dime—the insurance companies pay their commissions.
Whatever you do, don’t let your coverage lapse. If it does, due to some less-than-compassionate state laws, a future insurer could pull that “Sorry, no preexisting condition coverage for you!” crap that no patient wants to hear.
Insure Your Business’s Ass
Every once in a while, I’ll see someone make the wild claim in an online forum that freelancers who have a business license or have christened their business with a name other than their own are impervious from any legal war waged against them. But nothing could be further from the truth.
As we talked about in Chapter 4, incorporating your business or forming a limited liability company can help put a layer of protection between your personal assets (house, savings) and your professional life if you rack up business debt or find yourself on the losing end of a legal squabble with a client. But regardless of whether you form a corporation or LLC (or choose to remain a sole proprietor), if you feel at all legally vulnerable, you should look into professional liability insurance.
A professional liability policy can help protect a writer against a libel suit or a physical therapist against claims arising if a client takes a nasty spill in her office. Many indie professionals providing high stakes services (like financial counseling, web programming, and legal proofreading) also carry an errors & omissions (E&O) policy to help protect them in the event they screw up royally—say, if a web developer makes a critical mistake that leads to her client’s e-commerce site being hacked (and a subsequent public relations fiasco). While a liability policy for $1 million (often the recommended bare minimum) can cost hundreds of dollars a year or more, if you’re in a sue-happy industry, it could be the best investment you’ll ever make.
If you’re new to freelancing, a professional liability policy might sound like total overkill. (I certainly managed to avoid buying one for more than a decade.) But once you start meeting with clients at your office, farming out work to other