You can still get a nationwide PPO in Illinois through me. In the Peoria area a single insurer sells every marketplace plan, so here is how owners of small family companies there pick between its HMO, its PPO and a private plan.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a health insurance broker based in Tampa. I'm licensed in 36 states, and Illinois business owners can sort out family coverage with me by phone.
Picture a couple who own a coffee roaster with a café in Peoria Heights and a wholesale room in East Peoria. They have three kids, and the youngest sees a pediatric specialist in Chicago every few months, a drive of a couple of hours each way. The business is an LLC with the two of them on it and a few part-timers. Their coverage comes from Get Covered Illinois, and around Peoria that means one company's plans and nothing else.
Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties each have 19 individual medical plans on Get Covered Illinois for 2026, all from a single insurer: 9 HMOs and 10 PPOs. Illinois sets marketplace rates by rating area, and in the one that includes Peoria the least expensive silver PPO costs only 14% more than the least expensive silver HMO, at age 40 before any subsidy. That's a modest step up.
You can also still get a nationwide PPO in Illinois through me. It's private, underwritten person by person, and its network includes specialists in Chicago, St. Louis and beyond. For a family with care outside the area, that's a comparison worth running.
Get Covered Illinois bases your help on the household's income for the coverage year, up to four times the federal poverty level, a line that rises with a family of five. For an LLC owner that means profit after green coffee, equipment, the café lease, wages and the delivery van, plus any other income in the house.
Full prices rose this year. The Illinois Department of Insurance reported a statewide weighted average increase of 28.8% for 2026 individual plans.
Buy through Get Covered Illinois, since the credit can't be used anywhere else. The credit is calculated from a benchmark silver plan, so picking the PPO costs you its extra 14% out of pocket. For this family, that might be the best money they spend. Their youngest's specialist is in Chicago, outside a Peoria HMO's network, and an HMO generally pays out of network only in an emergency. A PPO keeps paying out of network, with the family covering a larger share. With the credit behind it and a gap this small, the marketplace PPO can be a smart buy.
Next step: Bring last year's return and each child's doctors, and I'll price the HMO and PPO with your credit applied and show the out-of-network costs.
Past the credit range, all five people pay the full sticker, and that's when private coverage often wins for healthy owners. Each person answers health questions. The insurer approves, approves with a specific condition carved out, or declines. A child with an ongoing diagnosis may be the one family member who stays on the marketplace while the healthy parents and siblings are priced privately. We sort that out person by person and read each plan's benefits before you decide.
Next step: Call me and I'll price the household both ways: everyone on the marketplace, and a private nationwide PPO for whoever qualifies.
Cafés have good years. If you took advance credit and profit ends up higher than you reported, the difference is squared up on your tax return, and after 2025 there's no ceiling on that repayment. Update your income with Get Covered Illinois when a big wholesale account lands, rather than waiting until April.
Next step: When the business changes direction mid-year, call me and we'll check whether your plan and your estimate still fit.
That person should usually stay on the marketplace, where plans accept everyone and can't charge more for health. With one insurer in your county, the decision narrows to HMO or PPO, and the right answer depends on whether their specialists are local or farther away.
Next step: Give me each person's doctors and prescriptions, and I'll show you which Peoria plans keep their care in place.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
One. All 19 Get Covered Illinois plans in Peoria County for 2026 come from a single insurer.
Not by much. The least expensive silver PPO costs 14% more than the least expensive silver HMO.
Generally only in an emergency, unless that specialist is in the plan's network.
Yes. Healthy owners and family members can buy one privately through me.
Your county, the ages of everyone you cover, a rough figure for what the company cleared, and any specialists the family sees. You'll get the marketplace and a private nationwide PPO priced for your household, and my straight answer on which is better.
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