You can still get a nationwide PPO in Arkansas through me, and the Arkansas marketplace sells PPO-labeled plans at almost the same price as its POS plans. Here is how Little Rock travelers decide.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a Tampa-based broker licensed in 36 states. Travel nurses keep coverage of their own with my help, from any assignment, by phone.
Consider a nurse who grew up in North Little Rock, trained there, and spent five years on a cardiac floor in Little Rock before going travel. She kept her house in the Heights. Her assignments this year: a winter in Albuquerque, a spring in Spokane, a summer in Savannah, home in between. Each agency's plan lasted exactly as long as the contract. When she shops HealthCare.gov from her Pulaski County address, the list looks unlike anything she's seen in other states: more PPOs than anything else.
Pulaski County has the same 52 individual medical plans as every Arkansas county for 2026: 28 filed as PPOs and 24 POS plans, and no HMOs or EPOs. The PPO isn't priced as a premium product, either. At the silver level, for a 40-year-old with no subsidy, it's 3% more than the least expensive POS plan.
On the private side, you can still get a nationwide PPO in Arkansas through me, underwritten on your health, with a network meant to treat clinics in Albuquerque or Spokane as in network. For a traveler, the choice is between a marketplace PPO and a private one.
Marketplace help is based on household income for the full coverage year, up to four times the federal poverty level. Contract count, breaks, stipend structure and any local shifts all move that total. Start from what's signed and adjust it as assignments come in.
Arkansas took the Medicaid expansion; adults qualify up to 138% of the poverty line, according to KFF. Its ARHOME work and community engagement requirement soft-launched July 1, 2026 and is fully enforced from January 1, 2027, which matters if you ever plan a long break with little income.
A 60-day special enrollment window opens on HealthCare.gov when job-based coverage ends. COBRA can continue the agency plan, but walking away from it later, or missing payments, won't reopen enrollment. Settle on a path before you elect it.
Plenty of travelers stop relying on agency coverage and keep one plan of their own year-round, so nothing resets between contracts.
Next step: Call me before your final shift, and we'll have your coverage ready for the time at home.
The credit can only be used on HealthCare.gov. Its size is set by a benchmark silver plan, which means any plan priced higher costs you the gap out of pocket. In Arkansas, the PPO's gap is small. A plan filed as a PPO still pays outside its network, at a higher cost to you. For a traveler with the credit, that makes the Arkansas marketplace PPO a strong choice. Ask how each plan handles out-of-state care before you pick.
Next step: Send me your contract calendar, and I'll price the Arkansas PPOs with your credit and show what out-of-state visits would cost.
Without the credit, compare the marketplace PPO at full price with a private nationwide PPO. To get the private plan, you fill out a medical questionnaire, and the underwriter accepts you, accepts you with a named condition excluded, or declines. A healthy nurse often pays below the marketplace's sticker, with in-network care in the cities where she's assigned. We go through benefits plan by plan.
Next step: Book a call and I'll put a nationwide PPO quote beside the full-price marketplace PPO for Pulaski County.
With a daily medication or a regular specialist, keep your coverage on the marketplace at any income. Every applicant is accepted, and your health can't raise the premium. Choose the plan whose network keeps your Little Rock specialist, and plan refills around trips home.
Next step: List your doctors and prescriptions, and you'll see which Arkansas plans keep them in network.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Yes, and plenty of them. More than half of the county's marketplace medical plans are PPO-labeled, and at the silver level they run about 3% above the POS plans.
It will pay something for out-of-network care, but you'll carry more of the cost, so look up each plan's out-of-state terms.
Losing agency coverage opens a 60-day window to enroll through HealthCare.gov.
Yes. Healthy nurses can buy one privately through me.
Share your home county, your contract dates and where you think you'll go next. I'll show you how to cover the gaps and price both PPO routes for you.
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