You can still get a nationwide PPO in Indiana after you trade the plant job for your own license. Here's how electricians leaving factories and RV plants across northern Indiana are replacing their group coverage.
Hi, I'm Sam. I'm a Tampa-based broker who works only on health insurance, Indiana is on my license, and you can handle everything with me over the phone.
Northern Indiana runs on factories. Elkhart and the towns around it build a big share of the country's RVs, and plants making steel, auto parts and equipment line the corridor from Gary to Fort Wayne. Plenty of electricians learned the trade keeping those lines running, with a union or company health plan as part of the deal. Then some of them go out on their own, wiring homes, doing service work, or contracting back to the plants. That's the move this page covers, and the first problem it creates is replacing the factory's health plan.
Plenty of plant workers had a PPO through the company. Once you leave, you can still get a nationwide PPO in Indiana, and I'm the route to it.
Indiana's marketplace won't provide one. HealthCare.gov lists 80 individual medical plans for 2026, from 5 insurers in all 92 counties, and they break down into 45 HMOs, 33 EPOs and 2 POS plans. HMOs and EPOs generally refuse to pay for a routine visit outside the network; emergencies are the exception. A PPO covers you outside the network as well, with more of the bill on you, and lets you skip referrals. Private plans built on medical underwriting carry national PPO networks and price you by your health.
Leaving a job that provided health coverage is a qualifying event. You'll usually have 60 days from losing that plan to pick one on HealthCare.gov, whatever the month. COBRA may also be offered. It can bridge you, but if you elect it and later quit it by choice, no new enrollment window opens; only running out of COBRA does that.
If you want an underwritten PPO, apply a few weeks ahead, since the insurer has to review your application before coverage can start.
This is the electrician I wrote this page for. You're healthy, your spouse and kids are healthy, and you're used to a PPO. Swapping to a single-network HMO or EPO feels like a step down.
An underwritten nationwide PPO is the closest replacement. The company reviews your medical history from the application, then offers a policy, says no, or offers one that leaves a particular past condition uncovered. If your history is clean, that's how the cost can end up under HealthCare.gov's full price. Benefit details change plan to plan, and we'll compare them carefully before your start date.
Next step: Ring me before your last shift and we'll have a nationwide PPO ready to start when the plant coverage stops.
Starting out often means a lighter year. If your household profit, after the van, wire, tools, the license, insurance and fuel, lands in the federal premium tax credit's range, a HealthCare.gov plan is usually the least expensive option, since private plans can't use the credit. Make sure its network includes your doctors.
If income drops very low, the Healthy Indiana Plan, the state's Medicaid expansion, takes adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level.
Next step: Send me your expected first-year income and I'll show you which option fits before you give notice.
If anyone on your plan needs regular treatment or a daily medication, land on HealthCare.gov rather than an underwritten plan. Marketplace plans have to accept you and can't charge extra for health. We'll pick the one that keeps your specialists. Separately, workers' comp, if your new business buys it, is for job injuries only.
Next step: Share your family's doctors and prescriptions and I'll find which Indiana plans in your county keep them.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
The company plan usually ends when you leave. That loss generally opens a 60-day window to choose a HealthCare.gov plan, any time of year.
Yes, outside the marketplace. Indiana's marketplace sells no PPO medical plans for 2026, but a healthy electrician can get a nationwide PPO through me.
Compare it first. Dropping COBRA early by choice doesn't open a new enrollment window, so decide before you elect it.
The Healthy Indiana Plan covers adults with income up to 138% of the federal poverty level.
When the plant coverage ends, which county you're in and whose names go on the new plan: send me those three things. I'll lay out each option with a price attached, and I'll be straight with you if one of them is to wait.
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