Coverage with style.
Made for the chair
and the shop.

Almost always, yes. If you receive a 1099 (or no W-2) from the shop you work in, the IRS and the ACA marketplace treat you as self-employed. That means you shop the individual ACA marketplace, you likely qualify for premium tax credits, and you can deduct your health premiums on Schedule 1 as a self-employed health-insurance deduction.

Self-employed health premiums are deducted on Schedule 1, line 17 — not Schedule C itself — but they reduce your adjusted gross income dollar-for-dollar. To qualify, you must have net self-employment income, you cannot be eligible for an employer-sponsored plan (including a spouse's), and the policy must be in your name or your business's name.

Physical and occupational therapy are essential health benefits under every ACA-compliant plan. Coverage caps vary by carrier — typically 20 to 60 visits per year — and most plans require a referral or prior authorization. We map your wrist, hand, and shoulder providers against each plan's network before you enroll.

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), HIV and hepatitis testing, and follow-up labs are covered as preventive or urgent care on every ACA plan. The catch is the ER vs. urgent-care setting — we'll show you which plans have the lowest emergency-room cost-share and which carriers have 24-hour nurse lines so you don't end up in a $3,000 ER bill for what could be handled at an urgent care.

All ACA plans cover mental health and substance-use treatment at parity with medical care. Telehealth therapy is usually covered at the in-network rate. We highlight plans whose behavioral-health networks include therapists who specialize in chronic pain, burnout, and creative professionals.

Yes. With as few as one full-time W-2 employee plus yourself, you qualify for a small-group plan in most states. Group plans offer guaranteed-issue coverage regardless of health, often richer networks, and you can deduct the employer share as a business expense. We compare your group quote side-by-side with individual ACA pricing for each member — sometimes individual still wins.

Yes. The marketplace asks for an annual estimate, not month-by-month. Use your best projection, and update it during the year if it changes by more than a few thousand. We help artists with seasonal or uneven income choose a realistic estimate that captures the subsidy without triggering a tax-time clawback.

Anyone under 26 can stay on a parent's plan. Otherwise apprentices typically qualify for the lowest-cost ACA tier (Bronze or Expanded Bronze) with significant premium tax credits given the low starting income. Some states also offer Medicaid for adults earning under 138% of the federal poverty level.