St. Pete's restaurants, galleries, breweries, and design studios keep small businesses thriving. Their owners often insure everyone except themselves. Let's change that.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a licensed broker who helps people find health insurance. My home base is Tampa, across the Howard Frankland from St. Petersburg. Since St. Pete is Pinellas County's largest city, the insurance plans available to you are drawn from the countywide selection.
A typical call from St. Pete might come from someone operating a taco restaurant in Grand Central District, a tattoo parlor, a yoga business, or a marketing firm with two people. After making sure their employees get paid, these owners finally turn to their own health insurance. I work with them over the phone, the same way I serve clients across all 36 states where I'm licensed. My Tampa page has more information for the surrounding bay area.
Only one insurer offers marketplace PPO coverage in Pinellas, and the premium difference is substantial. For a 40-year-old comparing silver plans, the PPO costs 138% more than the alternatives, while Florida's statewide median difference is 110%. I can help you apply for a private nationwide PPO instead. When a healthy business owner needs unsubsidized family coverage, that's generally the quote I'd check first.
You don't automatically need business group insurance just because you own a company. If you have a handful of part-time employees, you can purchase your family's coverage separately and make decisions about staff benefits on their own. I explain that side on my small business page. Here, we're concentrating specifically on protecting your household.
What matters for your family's insurance price is household income rather than total business sales. According to the Pinellas plan listing, residents have 149 medical plans from 6 insurers to choose from, with just 14 offering PPO networks.
Consider a husband and wife running a 40-seat restaurant along Central Avenue. They keep their own paychecks relatively small to support the business. Their child, age 8, has asthma and receives specialist care at Johns Hopkins All Children's, the pediatric hospital located in St. Petersburg.
Since they keep their personal compensation modest, these owners might qualify for marketplace tax credits based on household income. When they do, marketplace insurance is generally the lower-cost way to insure their family of four. Before enrolling, we'd make sure Johns Hopkins All Children's is included in the network.
Next step: Share last year's personal earnings from the business and the name of your child's specialist. I'll compare plans that allow your child to continue seeing that provider.
Once your business provides a higher personal income, you may no longer qualify for premium credits, leaving you with expensive marketplace rates. That's when I'd explore private PPO coverage. Insurers review each applicant's medical history and may accept coverage, deny the application, or exclude a particular condition. Healthy households can often find lower premiums along with nationwide provider access, especially useful when business takes you to supplier meetings or trade shows.
Prefer receiving treatment at St. Anthony's? That hospital has served St. Pete since 1931, and we can verify whether your coverage includes it as well.
Next step: Give me a call and I'll compare your family's private PPO quote against the full-price marketplace alternatives so you can see the difference clearly.
Owning a restaurant or shop means some years can be financially difficult. When your household earnings fall beneath the federal poverty level, marketplace tax credits may not be available, and Florida hasn't adopted Medicaid expansion. If your income is heading in that direction, contact me before enrollment or filing so we can review the remaining possibilities.
Next step: If you're expecting a particularly difficult income year, get in touch now. We'll review your coverage choices ahead of open enrollment instead of waiting.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Not always. You can insure your own household with an individual policy while deciding separately whether to provide coverage benefits to your employees.
That depends entirely on the coverage you select. Before enrolling, we'll verify the hospital and your child's specialist individually against the plan's provider network.
Absolutely. If your family is healthy and paying without premium assistance, I can help you apply for a nationwide private PPO. Pinellas also offers marketplace PPO coverage, but its premiums are substantially higher than the other available plans.
You pay me nothing for helping. The insurer provides my compensation, and your monthly premium is unchanged from what you'd pay purchasing directly.
Let me know which family members need insurance, how much you took home from your business last year, and the doctors and hospitals you prefer. I'll focus on coverage for your household rather than benefits for your employees.
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