You can still get a nationwide PPO in Indiana, and you can get your enrollment done even while every furnace in town is quitting. Here's how heating and cooling techs who run their own business in Indiana are handling coverage.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a broker who deals only in health insurance. I'm based in Tampa, licensed in Indiana, and I work by phone, so we can handle this in a few short calls between jobs.
In Indiana, the furnace calls usually start in earnest around the first real cold snap of the fall, and by December an HVAC owner is booked solid. That's also exactly when health insurance enrollment happens. Every year, some owners miss the deadline because they were in a basement until nine at night. This page is about not letting that be you, and about what to choose once you sit down to do it.
You can still get a nationwide PPO in Indiana, and it doesn't have to wait for the marketplace's calendar or menu.
The menu is limited. Indiana's 2026 marketplace has 80 individual medical plans from 5 insurers across all 92 counties: 45 HMOs, 33 EPOs and 2 POS plans, and not one PPO. HMOs and EPOs generally won't pay for out-of-network care unless it's an emergency. A PPO keeps paying when you step outside the network, though your share is bigger, and nobody has to sign off with a referral. Medically underwritten private plans offer that on national networks, priced on your health.
On HealthCare.gov, open enrollment starts November 1 and ends January 15. Coverage that begins January 1 requires picking a plan by December 15. For an HVAC owner, that window sits right on top of the heating rush.
My advice is simple: do it early in November, before the calls stack up. The estimate you give is your net self-employment income for the coming year, meaning profit after the van, equipment, parts, refrigerant, licensing, insurance and any tech's wages, and you update it as soon as it changes.
This is the owner this page is built around. If your household qualifies for the federal premium tax credit, a HealthCare.gov plan is almost always your least expensive coverage, because the credit doesn't apply to private plans. A short call in early November is enough to settle three things:
Next step: Call me in early November and we'll get you enrolled before the heating calls take over your days.
If your business has grown past the credit range, you're paying full price for a regional plan. For a healthy household, a medically underwritten nationwide PPO is worth a quote. The carrier looks over a medical questionnaire and then either issues the policy, turns it down, or issues it with a single condition written out. When you're healthy, that review is what keeps the price under the marketplace's full rate. We'll read the benefits of each plan together.
Next step: Call with your county and everyone's ages, and you'll have a nationwide PPO quote sitting alongside Indiana's marketplace prices.
A mild winter can thin out a heating business. If household income drops to 138% of the federal poverty level or lower, the Healthy Indiana Plan, the state's Medicaid expansion, can cover you. If anyone in the family manages a chronic condition or daily medication, stay with HealthCare.gov at any income, since its plans can't refuse you or charge more for health. Workers' comp, if you carry it, covers only on-the-job injuries.
Next step: Call me if either of those fits your year and we'll pick the right coverage.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
On HealthCare.gov, from November 1 to January 15. Enroll by December 15 for coverage starting January 1.
You can still enroll on HealthCare.gov through January 15, but your coverage starts later than January 1. Losing other coverage during the year usually opens a separate window.
Yes, just not on HealthCare.gov, which lists no PPO medical plan in Indiana this year. Healthy owners can buy a nationwide one through me.
Base it on a typical year's profit rather than a record one, and revise it with the marketplace the moment a season breaks unusually high or low.
Get me your county, the people you're covering and an approximate profit figure from last year, ideally before November fills up. I'll price the right option for your household and tell you plainly if your current plan should stay.
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