Your contracts change every few months, and so does your coverage. Here is how travelers are closing the gaps and keeping a network that goes where they go.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, and I'm a licensed broker in Tampa who helps people buy their own health insurance. Travel nurses have an unusual problem. You spend your career looking after other people's health, and your own coverage keeps changing every time a contract does.
I'm licensed in 36 states and everything happens by phone, so it doesn't matter whether you're home between assignments or halfway through a contract across the country.
Coverage for travelers usually breaks in one of two places: the gap between contracts, and a network that stops working once you cross a state line. Here's how nurses in your shoes are handling both while keeping the cost down.
Before we get into networks, there's one question to answer: is your household income for the year low enough to qualify for help on the marketplace?
Travel work makes that harder to read than a staff paycheck. Contracts don't always line up end to end, some years you take a long break, and if you pick up work on a 1099, the marketplace counts what's left of that pay after business costs. The help is based on what you expect your household to make across the whole year.
The cutoff is four times the federal poverty line, which for a single person is a bit over $60,000, and higher for bigger households. Where you land depends on how many weeks you work. Pick the case that fits.
You've probably lived this one. A contract wraps, the agency plan ends with it, and the next start date is weeks away. Or you switch agencies and have to start over with a new plan.
Losing job-based coverage counts as a qualifying event, so you get a special enrollment period, typically 60 days, to buy a marketplace plan outside open enrollment. You can also keep the old plan through COBRA. But if you take COBRA and later cancel it by choice, that cancellation doesn't create a new window, so settle on your direction before you elect it.
Some travelers stop depending on the agency for coverage and keep one plan of their own all year, so nothing resets when the assignment does. We can look at whether that works for you.
Next step: Call me before your last shift on this contract, and we'll have coverage ready for the gap.
Read the network type before you read the price. An HMO generally won't pay for care outside its network unless it's an emergency, and an EPO behaves the same way. If your plan's network is built around your home state, a routine visit three states away can become a bill you pay entirely yourself.
A PPO covers out-of-network care too, at a higher share, and you don't need a referral to see a specialist. For a healthy nurse who earns too much for a subsidy, there are private underwritten plans built on PPO networks that cover the whole country, so the clinic near this assignment's housing and your doctor at home can both be in network. You'll answer health questions to apply, and those answers decide whether you're approved, declined, or approved with something excluded. We'll look at what each plan actually pays before you choose.
Next step: Book a call and I'll price a nationwide PPO against what the marketplace charges at your home address.
Maybe you took a few months to rest, or you're picking up local per diem shifts between travel jobs. If your household income comes in under the line, the marketplace is usually where you'll find the most affordable plan, because that's the only place the subsidy applies.
The estimate is everything here. Report your best guess for the whole year, then revise it when you sign a new contract. If the year ends higher than you said and you never revised it, part of the help can return as a bill when you file your taxes.
Next step: Send me your contract dates for the year and I'll help you turn them into an estimate and a plan.
If you take a medication you can't skip or see a specialist regularly, the marketplace is usually the safer place to land even at full price. Marketplace plans can't refuse you or charge more because of your health. An underwritten plan can.
In that case the work is picking a marketplace plan whose network includes the doctors you rely on, and planning refills and appointments around your time at home.
Next step: Tell me your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll find the marketplace plans that keep them covered.
Plenty of travelers give up on a PPO because their home-state marketplace sells only HMO or EPO plans, or charges too much for the PPO it has. That doesn't settle it. I can get you a nationwide PPO in any of the 36 states I'm licensed in. If you're healthy and your work keeps you moving, that's the conversation to have with me.
My help is free. The insurer pays me once you're enrolled, and using me doesn't raise your premium.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
If your coverage came through the agency and ends with the contract, you can usually continue it through COBRA or buy a plan of your own. Losing job-based coverage opens a special enrollment window, typically 60 days, to enroll on the marketplace.
Usually only for emergencies. HMOs and EPOs generally don't pay for routine care outside their network. If you travel for work, a PPO, which covers out-of-network care at a higher cost, tends to fit better.
Yes, if your household income for the year is under the limit, about four times the poverty level. Breaks between contracts and time off both lower your yearly total, so it's worth checking every year.
A plan you own yourself doesn't end when an assignment does. If you're healthy, I can quote private plans on PPO networks that reach across the country, so the coverage moves with you from one contract to the next.
Send me your contract dates, your home address and your next assignment. I'll show you how to cover the gaps and what a plan that travels with you would cost, and if your agency plan is honestly the better deal, I'll tell you.
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