You can still get a nationwide PPO in Delaware. For a Dover electrician leaving a small contractor to work for himself, the first choice is how to bridge the old group plan. Here's how that works.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. I'm a broker licensed in Delaware, and health insurance is the only thing I work on. Everything happens over the phone.
So here's the electrician. He's spent eight years with a Dover contractor that has about fifteen people, wiring new homes in the developments around Camden, Magnolia and Smyrna, doing service work for small businesses along Route 13, and pulling wire in farm buildings out toward Harrington. He's got his master license now and enough loyal customers to go out on his own after the holidays. His wife and their little boy are on the shop's group plan, and the owner has handed him a sheet about continuing it.
To start with the big picture: you can still get a nationwide PPO in Delaware, and I can quote one for your family in Dover.
The marketplace in Kent County offers 40 medical plans for 2026 from 3 insurance companies, 17 EPOs, 15 PPOs and 8 HMOs. The PPOs sit at the top of the silver price range; for a 40-year-old before any credit, the least expensive PPO is 17.5% above the least expensive EPO. An EPO pays only inside its network, apart from emergencies, which is fine for a family whose doctors are all in Dover and in it.
Because the shop is under 20 employees, Delaware's continuation law is the one that applies, not federal COBRA. It lets you stay on the shop's group plan for as long as 9 months, and you have 30 days from the notice to sign up. Get the monthly price from the owner in writing; everything else gets measured against it.
The marketplace is the second path. Losing job-based coverage opens a Special Enrollment Period you can use in the 60 days before the plan ends and the 60 days after. The third is a nationwide PPO bought privately, which you can apply for whenever you want, but which asks about everyone's health.
Most electricians clear less in the first months of running their own book. In that stretch HealthCare.gov tends to come out ahead, since the credit can be used on its plans and never on continuation coverage. Estimate your net honestly, after the van, tools, wire, licensing, bond and liability insurance, and raise it as jobs come in. If your family doctor and your son's pediatrician in Dover are in one of the lower-priced EPO or HMO networks, I'd usually start there rather than paying 17.5% more for the PPO.
Next step: Send me the shop's last day of coverage and your best estimate of this year's net, and I'll price Kent County's plans with your credit applied.
If she's mid-treatment with doctors she trusts, staying on the old group plan for up to 9 months avoids changing networks in the middle of it. That stability may be pricier than a marketplace plan with the credit, so we price both before you sign. When the 9 months run out, we'll compare the marketplace and a private plan again with her care in mind.
Next step: Pass along the shop's continuation quote and her doctors' names, and you'll see the two options priced out together.
Some electricians are booked through spring before they've ordered business cards. If the household earns past the credit range, every Kent County plan is full price, and a medically underwritten nationwide PPO is worth a quote. Each of you answers health questions; the insurer approves, approves with one earlier condition carved out, or declines. A healthy family often pays less this way than full marketplace price. If you're on a marketplace plan for part of the year, raise your estimate as soon as the work picks up.
Next step: Tell me how old each of you is and who your doctors are, and the nationwide PPO quote comes back next to Kent County's sticker prices.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Up to 9 months, for people whose employer normally had between 1 and 19 employees.
30 days after you receive the notice.
Yes. Losing job-based coverage gives you 60 days before and 60 days after to enroll on HealthCare.gov.
Yes. Before credits, the least expensive PPO is 17.5% above the least expensive EPO for a 40-year-old.
Give me the last day of the shop's coverage, their continuation quote, the family members to cover and your guess at this year's net. I'll set all three options next to each other and tell you which I'd pick.
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