You can still get a nationwide PPO in West Virginia through me. Here is how a Huntington nurse trading a hospital staff job for travel contracts keeps coverage steady through the switch.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a broker working from Tampa with licenses in 36 states. Travel nurses who call West Virginia home set up their coverage with me by phone, wherever the current contract is.
Here's the nurse I'm picturing. She spent eight years on a med-surg floor at a hospital in Huntington and finally signed with a travel agency. She's keeping her house near Ritter Park, and her first contract is in Charlotte, with Raleigh lined up after that. Her staff coverage ends with her last day on the floor, her first assignment starts a few weeks later, and she's not sure yet whether the agency plan starts on day one. Her question is simple: what covers her in the gap, and what should she carry for the long run?
The marketplace menu is identical in every West Virginia county for 2026: 37 individual medical plans from two insurers. One company sells all 15 PPOs and the other sells all 22 HMOs. Price the bottom silver plan of each type for a 40-year-old, credit aside, and the PPO is 3.5% under the HMO in all 55 counties.
A nationwide PPO is also still available to West Virginians through me, and for a traveler it deserves a close look. It's a private plan, priced after a health review, built to cover you in Charlotte or Raleigh and at home in Huntington alike.
Where you live sets the marketplace price, and Cabell County sits at the top. The least expensive silver plan in Cabell, Mason, Putnam and Wayne counties is the highest of any West Virginia county, 24% more than in Berkeley and Jefferson. KFF's average benchmark silver premium for a 40-year-old in the state also rose 16.8% from 2025 to 2026.
That full price only matters if you pay it. The credit generally covers household incomes from 100% to 400% of the poverty line, and a travel year often lands above that range once the contracts stack up.
Leaving the hospital means losing job-based coverage, which can qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period. You can use it if the loss happened in the past 60 days or is coming in the next 60, so you can line up a plan before your last shift. Ask the agency the exact day its plan starts, and ask your HR office what continuing the hospital plan would cost for those weeks. Then we compare.
Next step: Send me your last day on staff and your first contract date, and I'll find the least expensive way to cover the gap.
If your income for the year passes four times the poverty line, the credit is gone and you'd pay Cabell County's full marketplace price, the steepest in the state. That makes a private nationwide PPO well worth pricing. The insurer looks at your health history and approves you, approves you with one condition carved out, or declines. Healthy nurses often come in under the marketplace's unsubsidized price, and the same card works on every assignment. We'll compare benefits plan by plan before you choose.
Next step: Call me between contracts, and I'll quote a nationwide PPO against Cabell County's full-price plans.
Maybe you take a break, or contracts end early. If the year lands inside the credit range, HealthCare.gov is usually the most affordable path, and the silver PPO is usually the better buy: it costs less than the HMO and still pays something for providers outside its network, at an additional cost to you, which matters to a traveler. Read how far its network reaches into North Carolina before you rely on it there.
Next step: Give me your contract dates and a revised income estimate, and I'll price the Cabell County PPO and HMO with the credit.
Keep yourself on a marketplace plan. Those plans can't turn anyone down or charge more for health. With one company behind every PPO and the other behind every HMO, check which network includes the doctors who manage your care in Huntington, and how each plan pays when you're working out of state.
Next step: Tell me your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll find the Cabell County plan that keeps them while you travel.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Location sets the price. Cabell County's least expensive silver plan is the highest of any West Virginia county, 24% more than in the Eastern Panhandle.
Yes. Losing job coverage can qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period up to 60 days before the loss.
The PPO. Its least expensive silver plan costs 3.5% less than the least expensive silver HMO in every county.
Yes. Nurses in good health can buy one privately through me, and it covers you on assignment and at home.
Tell me your last day on staff, when your first contract starts, what the agency plan offers and what you expect to earn this year. I'll map out coverage for every week in between.
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