I would... but I have to stay for the health insurance.
Health insurance keeping you stuck?
For sure, financial protection from catastrophic or acute healthcare costs is important. In fact Census.Gov reported in 2021 that 16.2% of households with health insurance coverage have medical debt in comparison to 30.8% without health insurance coverage. Planning appropriately for the rising costs of health care is critical in all stages of life including the working years.
However, the health insurance that your current employer or spouse/partner's employer provides is not the only option even if it feels like it is. Often the health insurance puzzle is the one that keeps people from redirecting their life onto the less worn path - the one that is calling to them: tiny living, entrepreneurship, travel.
When I started to plan our move to tiny living, figuring out how to prepare for future health care costs and what level of insurance coverage made sense was a big piece of the puzzle. The switch from corporate employee benefits to self-employment required analysis of past coverage and research for future needed coverage. I also had to estimate what cost we could safely absorb and what needed to be insured against.
Pre-existing conditions, provider networks, types of plans and ranges of cost are all factors in the equation of health insurance coverage. By the way, these are factors that an employer plan decides for you - whether they fit you or not. It can be a little daunting to solve this equation, but often we don't even bother to try. We just throw up our hands keep doing what we've been doing - the path of least resistance.
However, as with navigating the complexities of tiny house regulation, there are professionals who can help you explore your health insurance options and find an escape hatch from the corporate plan. Perhaps even if your cost of comparable insurance goes up, you will still pay less combined expenses because your cost of housing will go down. Decisions can be viewed within the context of the whole financial picture rather than one pixel at a time.
If you need help with this piece of your tiny home pivot let's find solutions together. Your health insurance coverage doesn't need to be the gatekeeper to your tiny life!
