One strong storm season might bring enough roofing work to carry your entire year, while another could leave your area untouched. Here's how self-employed roofers are finding dependable health insurance while keeping premiums reasonable.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. I'm a licensed health insurance broker based in Tampa, where roofing schedules revolve heavily around hurricane season. I work with clients by phone throughout the 36 states where I'm licensed.
Compared with many other skilled trades, roofing has a particularly large self-employed workforce. According to federal employment statistics, roughly one out of every five roofers works for himself, with additional workers operating as 1099 subcontractors for larger companies. As a result, many people in roofing must purchase their own health insurance. They're doing that while working in a physically demanding industry where earnings can change dramatically between one year and the next.
Those changes in annual earnings play a major role in deciding which insurance policy makes sense. I'll explain how roofers with different income situations are approaching their coverage decisions.
We can narrow down your choices by answering this first: will your household's earnings this year be low enough to receive marketplace assistance with health insurance premiums?
Marketplace premium assistance extends to households earning as much as four times the federal poverty level. For an individual, that's slightly above $60,000, and the threshold increases with additional household members. If you run your own roofing business, the income calculation uses your net earnings rather than total revenue. Costs for materials, dumpsters, trailers, employee wages, business insurance, and fuel are deducted first. So even when you've billed customers substantial amounts during a busy season, your remaining profit might still qualify you for assistance.
The difficulty is making an income projection when nobody knows what storms the coming months will bring. Here are the circumstances I most commonly encounter with roofers.
Many roofers who operate their own businesses or lead crews finish an ordinary year below the qualifying income limit. When that's your situation, subsidized marketplace coverage will generally be the most affordable choice, since premium assistance applies exclusively to policies purchased through the marketplace.
Your application will use an estimate of what you expect to earn for the year. If a major storm creates substantially more work and pushes your income above that projection, you need to report the change to the marketplace. Otherwise, the additional premium assistance gets reconciled when you file your taxes, potentially requiring repayment of part or even all of the excess subsidy.
We'll start with your previous year's earnings and adjust for the work you're seeing this season. The goal is a realistic, truthful income projection. If storm activity changes your expected profit, we'll revise the estimate accordingly.
Next step: Share your tax return from last year and let me know how roofing business has been this season. I'll help you choose coverage suited to your earnings.
Once your roofing operation includes multiple crews, a sales department, and consistent insurance-related projects, your earnings may exceed the subsidy threshold by a wide margin. That leaves you paying the marketplace's full premium, which can seem excessive for a healthy household that rarely needs medical services.
There's another route worth exploring. Private medically underwritten insurance evaluates your health background as part of the application. Healthy applicants can frequently find premiums considerably below the full marketplace rate. These policies also operate through nationwide PPO networks, which can be valuable when roofing projects take you across state borders following storm damage and you need medical care away from home.
These policies do have limitations you should understand. An insurer may reject your application or offer approval while excluding a previously treated medical condition. Coverage benefits also differ between policies, so I'll explain what each option includes before you make a commitment.
Next step: Give me a call and we'll review the cost and coverage details of an underwritten PPO alongside the full marketplace premium for your family.
Roofing takes a physical toll, and getting injured is a real possibility. That's why I want to clarify the difference between two types of insurance that roofers frequently confuse.
Workers' compensation is intended to address injuries connected to your work. It doesn't replace personal health insurance. If you catch the flu, need a routine examination, have a spouse requiring surgery, or your son breaks his arm playing soccer, workers' comp won't cover those situations. That's what your regular health insurance is for. And if you own a roofing crew, ask the professional handling your business insurance to explain how workers' compensation covers you as the owner.
If you're leaving employment with a roofing company that provided health benefits, losing that insurance gives you a 60-day special enrollment period to purchase marketplace coverage outside the normal enrollment season. COBRA may also be available, but keep it until its scheduled expiration if you choose that route. Voluntarily canceling COBRA early won't create another special enrollment opportunity.
Next step: Whether you're starting your own roofing operation or losing coverage through your existing crew, contact me before the policy ends. I'll help arrange replacement insurance in time to avoid an interruption.
Depending on where you live, your marketplace might not offer any PPO coverage, or the only PPO available may carry an unaffordable premium. That doesn't mean an HMO is your only choice. I can offer coast-to-coast PPO networks to roofers throughout all 36 states where I'm licensed. If you're in good health, we can usually get pricing in about fifteen minutes.
You can call without gathering paperwork first, but having these items available will help us finish more quickly:
You don't pay me a fee for helping you. The insurance company compensates me after you enroll, and your monthly premium remains exactly what it would be if you purchased the policy without my assistance.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Take your net earnings from last year as the starting point, then account for the amount of roofing work you're expecting this season. Submit your most realistic income projection, and revise it through the marketplace if storm activity makes your earnings significantly higher or lower than anticipated.
It's possible. If your final annual earnings exceed the income projection used when you enrolled, your premium assistance is recalculated through your tax return. Reporting changes in earnings throughout the year can help you avoid receiving a substantial repayment bill.
In most cases, no. When a roofing company pays you through a 1099, you're treated as a separate business rather than its employee. That generally leaves you responsible for purchasing personal health insurance.
No. Workers' compensation applies to injuries related to your employment, not everyday medical needs. You still require health insurance for sickness, preventive visits, and healthcare expenses involving your family.
Tell me approximately how much profit you took home last year, what business looks like this season, and which family members need insurance. I'll compare the coverage routes and explain their costs. If your current policy already does the job, I'll recommend staying with it.
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