Health Insurance for Freelancers: Right Side Up Partners with Catch to Offer Benefits Solutions

IMPORTANT UPDATE AS OF OCTOBER 2023: Catch was acquired, and continues to offer health insurance for freelancers. Read the release.

‍IMPORTANT UPDATE AS OF MARCH 8, 2023: Catch will be shutting down on April 6, 2023. Guidance on next steps—withdrawing funds from your tax withholding and savings accounts, how to access your retirement funds, and where to see your healthcare coverage—can be found in Catch's FAQs.

Making the switch from full-time employee to self-employed marketing consultant can offer great perks, like a flexible schedule and the ability to work with lots of different clients. But it also makes you responsible for your own benefits, like health insurance and retirement savings, which can be overwhelming to sort out without the help of an HR team. Here at Right Side Up, we’ve seen how much of a struggle this can be, so we’ve partnered with Catch, an all-in-one benefits solution, and we’re thrilled to show you how getting health insurance for freelancers can be easy and affordable.

Just so you know, Right Side Up does not benefit financially in any way from this partnership—we’re just excited to offer freelancers a solution for a common struggle!

Why Do You Need Benefits as a Marketing Consultant?

Healthcare costs in the US are often expensive and unpredictable. An unexpected illness, injury, or medical concern could leave you with thousands of dollars in medical bills, and if you don’t have insurance, that’s all going to come out of your pocket. It may seem complicated or costly to get your own health insurance coverage, but the financial risk of not having coverage is massive. Healthcare bills account for 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the US and most Americans aren’t able to cover emergency medical costs more than $1K.

How to find affordable health insurance for freelancers

Although the rising costs of healthcare are well known, the fear of high monthly premiums can seem like a barrier to getting health insurance coverage. And while you do have to pay monthly to secure that coverage, Catch makes finding the most affordable plan for your situation easy and straightforward. There’s no cost to use Catch (although there are a few small fees associated with certain features) and all plans are part of the federal healthcare exchange.

Some people may even qualify for tax credits that can greatly reduce your monthly premiums—and if you sign up for your plan through Catch, Catch will automatically find the tax credits you qualify for and apply them for you.

What does health insurance cover?

All of the plans you’ll find in Catch are ACA-compliant Qualified Health Plans that cover essential health benefits including:

• Ambulatory patient services (visits to doctors and other healthcare professionals and outpatient hospital care)
• Emergency services
• Hospitalization
• Maternity and newborn care
• Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
• Laboratory services
• Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
• Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

Like all plans in the federal marketplace, plans offered via Catch are broken down into tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. These groups are determined based on the amount of medical costs covered for the average person. It’s important to note that one group isn’t necessarily better or worse quality than the others—plans with lower monthly premiums just cover fewer medical costs. Here’s the average coverage you can expect from each tier:

• Bronze covers 60% on average of your medical costs; you pay 40%
• Silver covers 70% on average of your medical costs; you pay 30%
• Gold covers 80% on average of your medical costs; you pay 20%
• Platinum covers 90% on average of your medical costs; you pay 10%

For specific questions about details like deductibles, co-pays, HMOs vs. PPOs, etc. check out Catch’s helpful resource center.

Sign Up During Open Enrollment for 2023 Healthcare Coverage

Open enrollment began November 1 and runs through January 15, 2023. If you want to secure coverage for January 1, you must enroll by December 15—if you enroll after that date, coverage starts February 1. This is the only time you can sign up for a new plan for 2023 unless you have a qualifying life event, like getting married, giving birth, or moving states. So if you’re interested in getting health insurance coverage for next year, make sure to enroll before January 15 using our dedicated Right Side Up registration page.

Additional Benefits from Catch

Along with health insurance for freelancers, Catch also makes it easy to manage tax withholding and payments, and even has retirement plan options.

Manage tax withholdings and payments as a marketing consultant

Between keeping track of invoices, estimating taxes, withholding funds, and making quarterly payments, managing your taxes as a marketing consultant can be a headache. But Catch offers tools to tackle all of those tasks automatically. Just connect your back and add some basic info and Catch will handle income withholding and quarterly tax payments for you. You can even get smart reports to make keeping track of your taxes simple and easy to understand.

Saving for retirement as a freelancer using Catch’s investment tools

Even though you don’t have an employer-supported 401(k) as a freelancer, you can still save for your future with smart investment plans from Catch. They offer smart portfolios with pre-tax investment accounts managed by a roboadvisor you can customize based on your needs.

Take Control of Your Benefits

If you’re over trying to be your own HR department, check out Catch and see if it’s a good fit for you. Whether you’re interested in healthcare coverage, tax management, retirement planning, or all three, Catch makes getting benefits as a marketing consultant easy and cost effective. 

Got questions? Concerns? Catch has a great collection of articles and FAQs as well as live chat functionality on their site to answer any and all questions.

Sign up for Catch today to get health insurance coverage, tax management, and retirement planning. Interested in joining the Right Side Up team as a growth marketing consultant? Drop us a line at talent@rightsideup.co.