One-person shops are still a household
If it is you, or you and a spouse, the ACA marketplace is usually the clean path. Subsidies look at household income, including the 1099 year that bounced. We do not invent a group of one to feel corporate. Florida will not play along, and the IRS is less amused than a Facebook ad.
Bring last year’s return, year-to-date deposits, and whether you will hire in the next six months. Hiring can change the picture. It has not changed it yet.
When a small-group plan actually exists
Employees — W-2 people you pay on a schedule — can open a small-group or a defined-contribution arrangement. Participation rules, waiting periods, and employer contribution minimums apply. A cousin who invoices you occasionally is not a census.
If you have a real staff in a Doral warehouse or a clinic, we run group. If you have contractors, we run individual. Mixing those on purpose is how businesses get a decline and a mess.
ICHRA and “I give my people an allowance”
An individual coverage HRA can let a business contribute to employees’ individual plans with tax rules attached. It is real. It is also paperwork. We only build it when the headcount and the intent match. An allowance paid in cash on Venmo is not an ICHRA.
For the owner-only household, marketplace plus a tax conversation with your CPA is still the Palmetto path. We are the insurance desk. We will not pretend to be your accountant. We will sit next to that conversation.
Networks for people who do not sit in one office
Self-employed Miami-Dade life is appointments in Brickell and kids in Palmetto Bay. The plan has to work at both. We check the PCP, the pediatric, and the specialist you already have. A statewide HMO that looks cheap will feel expensive when every visit is out of network.
If you travel for work, say how often and where. Travel is not a reason to buy a junk short-term plan. It is a reason to read out-of-area rules.
What “start a quote” looks like on this line
Health for the self-employed goes to an advisor. You can start on the site so we have names, ages, and zip. Then we enroll in the window that is actually open. If you are reading this in July with no qualifying event, we plan for November and we do not sell you a fairy tale for August.
Portuguese and Spanish at the same desk. Bring the return. We will not make you translate your own 1099 out loud for a machine.
Questions we get
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If this sounds like your house, get a number.
Same desk that wrote the guide. Auto and home quote online. Other lines, an advisor.
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