You can still get a nationwide PPO in Mississippi when a yard job turns into a 1099 contract. Here's how Gulf Coast electricians who trade a badge for a contract are covering their families.
Hi, I'm Sam. I sell health insurance only, from an office in Tampa, and Mississippi is one of the states my license covers. Phone calls are all we need.
Along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, shipbuilding is a way of life, and Pascagoula's yards lean on a deep bench of electricians. A common path goes like this: years on the payroll, then an offer to come back through a contractor or as a 1099 hand, often for a better hourly rate and no benefits. It can be a good deal. But the health plan that came with the badge doesn't come with the contract, and the replacement has to be bought, chosen and timed by you.
A 1099 contract doesn't have to mean giving up a PPO. Through me, you can still get a nationwide PPO in Mississippi.
What HealthCare.gov offers Mississippians for 2026 is 48 individual medical plans from 5 carriers in all 82 counties, split between 38 HMOs and 10 EPOs. There isn't a PPO in the bunch. With either an HMO or an EPO, a doctor outside the network generally isn't paid for unless it's an emergency. A PPO still covers that outside doctor, just with a larger cost share, and spares you the referral step. For that, healthy people turn to private plans that are medically underwritten and built on national PPO networks.
Before you sign, it's worth putting a number on what the company plan was worth to your household, because the higher contract rate has to cover it now. That number depends on three things:
I'd rather you run those numbers before accepting the contract than after. A rate that looks generous next to your old paycheck can shrink fast once a family's health coverage, at full price, comes out of it, and that's a conversation worth having while you can still negotiate.
Losing payroll coverage is a qualifying event, and you'll usually have 60 days from that loss to choose a marketplace plan in any month. Electing COBRA and then dropping it on purpose doesn't give you a second window, so make the decision up front.
This is the electrician I wrote this page for. For a healthy household, a medically underwritten nationwide PPO is often the best like-for-like swap for a payroll PPO. You'll complete a health questionnaire; the carrier then issues coverage, refuses, or issues it with a single prior condition carved out. Good health is what lets the premium fall below HealthCare.gov's full sticker price. We'll compare each plan's benefits so you know what you're trading for.
Start the application a few weeks before the payroll coverage ends, since review takes time.
Next step: Before you sign the contract, call me and we'll price the PPO so you know exactly what the higher rate has to cover.
If the household's profit lands inside the credit range, a HealthCare.gov plan with the credit is generally the least expensive way to stay covered, since that discount can't be used privately. A very lean year is riskier: Mississippi hasn't adopted the Medicaid expansion, so working adults have little Medicaid to fall back on, and the credit generally starts at the poverty level.
Next step: Send me your expected contract income and I'll show you which side of those lines you're on.
If a spouse or child needs regular treatment or a daily medication, plan on a HealthCare.gov plan rather than underwriting, since marketplace plans can't refuse anyone or charge more for health. We'll match your specialists to the right network. And whatever accident or comp coverage the contractor requires, it pays for injuries at work, not illness.
Next step: Give me your family's doctors and prescriptions and I'll find which Mississippi plans keep them.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Usually not. As a 1099 contractor you're generally treated as your own business, so coverage is yours to buy.
Losing job-based coverage generally opens a 60-day special enrollment period to choose a HealthCare.gov plan.
Not on the marketplace, where the 2026 medical plans are HMOs and EPOs. A healthy electrician can get a nationwide PPO through me.
No. Mississippi has not adopted the Medicaid expansion.
What the contract pays, when the payroll coverage stops, your county and who you cover: with that I can price the realistic choices and tell you which one I'd pick in your shoes.
The guide for every state, and other work I help with