As a Self-Employed Individual Should I Make Accident Coverage a Priority?
As a self-employed individual, there are various types of health insurance coverage you may consider. One important option to consider is the accident health insurance coverage, and although opting out of accident coverage may reduce your premiums especially if you are carrying a private more expensive health care plan for yourself and family, it may not be a wise thing in the long run.
When people think of health insurance, they automatically think about illness and regular doctor visits or medication for a condition. Some may even think about the possibility of surgery and expensive diagnostic testing. However, not many people think about the possibility of having an accident that would require medical attention, unless of course they worked in a dangerous job. The truth of the matter is that accidents can happen anywhere in any situation. There are accidents at home, in the work place, car accidents, or just walking down the street and slipping and falling upon the payment can generate costly medical attention.
What you need to do is make sure you have health insurance to cover any accident where you will need emergency or medical attention. Insurance companies will pay for medical expenses generated for an accident and the insured is entitled to a bed in a ward, and food during the period of your hospital stay at the nearest hospital.
As a self-employed individual you would really need to reconsider you health insurance plan, and make sure as a self-employed individual you have a policy that will not only pay for the accident, but insure you for loss of wages.
Seriously think about it, if you were an employee somewhere, yes it would hurt to lose wages because of an accident preventing you from going back to work. However, the pressure of being self-employed and not able to work is twice as bad, for not only would you lose wages, you may lose your business as well. If your business is such that you must bid on contracts, staying home too ill to work because of the accident may pull you right out of the race and give your competition the edge. If you have employees but you are the key-person in the company with the technical expertise, your business may cease operation until you are physically able to come back. Not only would you lose revenue you may have to layoff or even fire your staff because you can no longer maintain the expenses while you are recuperating from a serious accident.
With most health plans, the benefits you would receive for the time you are away from work would pay up to two thirds of your actual salary. This coverage in most standard plans would be available for up to a year or two. You would find this coverage in most Income Protection Insurance or Personal Accident Insurance.
Whether you are a sole proprietor and you are your only employee or you have a small company with several employees you need to get an insurance advisor to help you select the right coverage for you.