The Self-Employed Insurance Guide: Health, Liability, and Disability Coverage (PDF Guide)

You left the job and the benefits left with it. No plan picked for you, no premium split, no quiet coverage if you get hurt. Nobody hands a freelancer a benefits packet.

This is the shortlist. What to buy, what it actually costs, and what changed in 2026, written for people who own the whole thing: freelancers, consultants, contractors, one-person agencies, trades.

What is inside

• The 2026 subsidy cliff. The enhanced premium tax credits expired on December 31, 2025. Earn one dollar over $62,600 as a single filer and your credit drops to zero. Why this hits self-employed people hardest, and the three contributions that pull your income back under the line.
• Buying a plan with no employer. Enrollment windows, the 60 day life event rule, what the metal tiers really mean, and the silver plan exception nobody points out on the shopping page.
• The HDHP and HSA combination, with the 2026 IRS limits in a table, plus an honest read on when it is the wrong plan for you.
• Five other ways people get covered, including a straight answer on health care sharing ministries and short term plans.
• The write-off most people miss, how Form 7206 works, and the disability premium trap that quietly taxes your benefit.
• Liability in plain terms. What general liability covers at $45 a month, what it does not, why errors and omissions is claims-made, and what tail coverage protects.
• Disability, the policy nobody buys. Own-occupation, 90 day elimination, benefits to 65, and what it costs at your income.
• A seven day plan. One task a day, none of them longer than an hour.

Every figure is real and sourced on the last page: IRS limits, KFF enrollment data, Congressional Research Service, Insureon cost data. No invented statistics, no filler pages.

12 designed pages, US Letter, instant download. Written for US coverage rules. General information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice.