You can still get a nationwide PPO in Michigan through me. In the Upper Peninsula the marketplace sells one too, so here is how travelers who keep a home base in Marquette decide between them.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a licensed broker in Tampa with licenses in 36 states. I help travel nurses keep coverage of their own as contracts come and go, and it all happens by phone.
Think of a nurse who grew up in the U.P. and still calls Marquette home. She owns a small house near Presque Isle Park, comes back for deer season and the holidays, and spends most of the year on 13-week contracts: a winter in San Diego, a spring in Charlotte, a summer in Seattle. Each agency plan starts and stops with its contract. In between, she's home on Lake Superior with no plan at all unless she arranges one. When she looks on HealthCare.gov from her Marquette address, she finds something many Michigan travelers don't: a menu that's half PPOs.
Marquette County has 16 individual medical plans from two insurers for 2026, and 8 of them are PPOs. The least expensive silver PPO costs 19% more than the least expensive silver HMO, at age 40 before any subsidy. That's a smaller gap than most of the state sees.
You can still get a nationwide PPO in Michigan through me as well. It's a private plan, priced after a health questionnaire, whose network is built to be in network from coast to coast. The marketplace PPO and the private one solve the travel problem in different ways, and which wins depends on your income and your health.
The credit depends on household income for the whole coverage year, up to four times the federal poverty level. A traveler's total moves with how many contracts you sign, how long the breaks run, and whether you pick up any 1099 work. Estimate from contracts in hand and expected, then revise it as each new one is signed.
When job-based coverage ends, you get 60 days to sign up on the marketplace. COBRA can carry the agency plan forward, but dropping it voluntarily later, or simply not paying, won't open a fresh window.
Short-term plans come up a lot here. Under Michigan law, one insurer can cover you on a short-term plan for at most 185 days out of any 365, and it can't renew you past that, so these plans can't carry a whole year. A plan you own yourself avoids the reset entirely.
Next step: Call me a couple of weeks before your contract wraps and we'll line up coverage for the gap.
This is where Marquette is unusual. The credit only applies on HealthCare.gov, and it's set by a benchmark silver plan, so choosing the PPO costs you the difference out of pocket. But the difference here is 19%, and for a nurse who spends most of the year out of state, that buys something real. Away from home, an HMO typically covers you only for emergencies, while a PPO keeps covering out-of-network visits, with you picking up more of the bill. For a traveler with the credit, the marketplace PPO can be a sensible buy, and I'll say so plainly.
Next step: Send me your contract calendar and I'll price the Marquette PPO and HMOs with your credit applied.
At full price, compare the marketplace PPO with a private one. The private plan asks about your health, and the insurer then approves you, approves you with one condition excluded, or declines. Healthy nurses often pay less than the marketplace's full rate, and the national network means a clinic near your San Diego housing can be in network rather than out. Plan benefits vary, and we'll read them together.
Next step: Book a call and I'll set a nationwide PPO quote against the full marketplace prices for your Marquette address.
If you can't skip a medication or you see a specialist on a schedule, the marketplace is the steadier home, even at full price. Marketplace plans accept everyone and can't charge more for a diagnosis. In a two-insurer county, choose the plan that keeps your specialist, and line up refills before each trip.
Next step: Tell me your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll show you which Marquette plans cover them.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Yes. Eight of the county's 16 marketplace plans are PPOs, and the least expensive silver PPO costs 19% more than the least expensive silver HMO.
A single insurer can cover you for no more than 185 days within a 365-day span, and renewal past that isn't allowed.
Generally only for emergencies, since HMOs pay outside their network only then.
Yes. Healthy nurses can buy one privately through me, wherever in Michigan home is.
Send me your home county, this year's contract dates and where you're headed next. I'll show you how to stay covered between contracts and which plan holds up best on the road.
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