I can still help Illinois travel nurses purchase a nationwide PPO. Champaign County is unusual because its marketplace offers PPO coverage exclusively. Here's how nurses based there can compare those plans with private nationwide coverage.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a licensed health insurance broker working across 36 states. I help travel nurses maintain consistent coverage of their own even when they move between contracts. We can take care of the entire process over the phone.
Imagine a nurse from Urbana who spent several years working med-surg in Champaign before beginning travel assignments. She owns a small condo near the university, close to her family, and appreciates the area's manageable living costs. This year she has an Austin contract during winter, a Portland assignment in spring and another possible contract in fall that she hasn't chosen yet. Her agency insurance ends after each assignment, and she returns to Champaign County between jobs. When she searches Get Covered Illinois using her condo address, the results surprise her: every available plan is a PPO.
In Champaign County, Get Covered Illinois lists ten individual medical plans for 2026. Every one is a PPO offered by the same insurance company. That pattern extends across much of downstate Illinois. Of the state's 102 counties, 56 have marketplace offerings consisting exclusively of that insurer's PPO plans.
I can also help you obtain a private nationwide PPO in Illinois. Its premium depends on your health, and participating doctors in Austin or Portland are treated as in-network providers just as they would be at home. If you're a Champaign-based travel nurse, the practical comparison is between the marketplace PPO and a private nationwide PPO.
Premium assistance is determined by household earnings over the full coverage year, with eligibility reaching four times the federal poverty level. Travel nurses need to account for the number of assignments accepted, breaks between contracts and any per diem or 1099 work. Build your initial projection around confirmed and expected assignments, then revise the figure whenever your work calendar changes.
When you lose agency-sponsored health insurance, Get Covered Illinois provides a 60-day enrollment window. COBRA may let you maintain the agency policy, but canceling it voluntarily afterward or losing it because you didn't pay doesn't qualify as another coverage loss for enrollment purposes. Compare the options carefully before deciding to elect COBRA.
Other nurses prefer to avoid changing insurance with every contract. They purchase their own year-round plan and keep it in place regardless of when individual assignments begin or end.
Next step: Give me a call several weeks ahead of your final shift, and we'll arrange the coverage you'll need after that assignment ends.
Without premium assistance, you're paying the marketplace's full PPO rate while much of the country remains outside its network. That's when a private nationwide PPO deserves comparison. The application asks about your health, and the insurer can accept you without exclusions, approve you with a named condition excluded or decline you. Nurses in good health often find premiums below the marketplace's full rate and participating providers in their assignment locations. Because benefits vary by policy, I'll walk through each one with you.
Next step: Arrange a call with me, and I'll put the full Get Covered Illinois PPO premium for your Champaign home address beside a nationwide PPO quote.
The annual open enrollment period for Get Covered Illinois begins November 1 and ends January 15. At other times, enrollment requires a qualifying event, such as losing agency insurance.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
No, there aren't any. All ten individual plans offered through Get Covered Illinois in Champaign County for 2026 are PPOs sold by one insurer.
PPO coverage includes out-of-network benefits, but you'll owe more for those services. Review the costs in the locations where you take assignments.
When your agency insurance ends, Get Covered Illinois gives you a 60-day special enrollment period to choose new coverage.
Yes. If you're in good health, I can help arrange private nationwide PPO coverage.
Share your home location, the contracts you expect to work this year and where your next assignment may take you. I'll compare coverage for the breaks between contracts and show you the price of each route.
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