Running your own law practice means your income may depend on your caseload and when clients pay. Here is how solo lawyers choose coverage for a year when earnings come in unevenly.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a licensed health insurance broker. I really enjoy helping solo lawyers find coverage. They know plenty about managing risk, spend their working lives reading the fine print, but often have no clue where to begin with their own health insurance. When you run a solo practice, there is no HR department to handle this for you. The decision is yours, and it is up to you to get it right.
I am licensed in 36 states and do most of my work by phone. That means a practice in a county seat gets the same attention as a firm downtown. Here is the way I look at your options.
Running your own practice means there is no group plan for you to sign up for. You choose your coverage yourself, and that choice determines your costs and the doctors and hospitals available to you. This also applies if you left a law firm to work solo or moved from a salaried in-house position to running a small practice.
I always begin by asking whether you have access to any employer coverage. For most practice owners, the answer is no. That makes solo lawyers a good example of the people I built this site to help.
Your practice earnings can change in ways a regular salary does not. A major settlement, a trial that takes longer than planned, a slow quarter as receivables arrive, or a matter that wraps up ahead of schedule can all affect your annual income. Your caseload and billing schedule often have more impact than the hours you put in.
This is important when looking at marketplace assistance. The premium tax credit uses the household income you expect to earn for the year, which you generally estimate before the year ends. Underestimate your income, and you may owe the difference when you file your taxes. From the 2026 tax year, the federal limit that previously protected lower-income households from some of that repayment no longer applies. It is better to use an estimate you can support than one based on wishful thinking.
By late summer, many solo lawyers have a general idea of how the year is going, with a much better picture by the fourth quarter. We can use that information to make a plan. If your estimate clearly falls within the marketplace range, we start there. If it is near the cutoff, we look at what might change and work out the cautious approach before you enroll.
If your expected annual income puts you within the marketplace credit range, that is where I begin. We need a sensible estimate, not an overly positive one, since a credit calculated on income that is too low could mean paying money back at tax time. We will work out the number together, and your CPA can check it against your books and tax situation.
Next step: Call me before choosing a plan. First, we will work out an income figure you can stand behind. Then we will compare marketplace plans with the doctors you currently see.
When a particularly good year takes your household income past the marketplace credit limit, you may have to pay the entire marketplace premium yourself. For a healthy attorney in that situation, a medically underwritten private PPO may look different when compared with the full marketplace price. The right fit depends on your medical history and the plans available in your area. We will go through those details before submitting an application.
Next step: Send me your income estimate and some details about your household's health. I will compare the marketplace price with a private PPO option for you.
Not having a PPO available through the marketplace in your state does not mean those are your only choices. I can offer access to a nationwide PPO in each of the 36 states where I am licensed. This can be especially useful for lawyers who travel to court, attend depositions or see clients in other cities, since you can take a broad network with you.
Some law practices regularly take you beyond your home area. You might have a trial in another county, a deposition in another state or a client appointment in a different city. That can mean dealing with an unfamiliar provider network. If your work involves regular travel, network access is a real concern. Before suggesting a plan type, I ask where your work takes you and explain how each network serves those places.
Getting these details together ahead of time helps us keep the call brief. The income estimate takes most of the work, and having all the information makes it more accurate.
I keep the process simple. I start by checking whether your household income makes you eligible for marketplace assistance. Next, we go over your health history and the doctors you see. In most cases, those two things give us a clear direction in one call.
Once we have that direction, I check actual prices for your household, go over the medical questions required for underwriting if we are considering private coverage, and help you through the application. If the marketplace makes more sense, I will tell you and help you enroll there. Insurance companies pay me for the policies I sell, but using a broker does not change your premium.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Yes. Solo attorneys get health coverage on their own, either through the marketplace or by purchasing a private plan. We begin by figuring out which option makes sense for your income and medical history.
Your credit calculation uses the annual income you estimate. When your practice earnings fluctuate significantly, revise that estimate as your income changes rather than waiting until the next year. That helps keep your credit in line with what you really earn.
Losing or changing employer coverage may qualify you for a special enrollment period. The applicable dates depend on exactly what changed. Get in touch with me once the change is confirmed, before dropping any coverage, so we can verify the deadlines.
Whether you can get a private plan depends on the particular condition and the plan's requirements. We will look at the details together instead of making assumptions. Having a health condition does not automatically rule out private coverage or mean you have to remain on the marketplace. Tell me about your situation, and I will explain both choices.
Tell me what state you live in, your household size and what you realistically expect to earn this year. I will walk you through the marketplace, private PPO options and which route I would consider first.
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