Contract workers in the US – what are you doing for health insurance?

Obamacare is not that bad.

Obamacare rates are not far from what a private employer with a moderate number of employees would pay, and if your income is low in a particular year, the subsidies can get you to where you are paying $20 a month or so. If your income is unpredictable you get the subsidy first and can then pay the difference when you have the money.

The only plans that make sense to get on an Obamacare exchange are the "bronze" high deductable plans. If you look at the difference between those and the lower deductable plans the difference is pretty much the amount of the difference in the deductable, which is what you expect from adverse selection theory.

If you are having a good year in terms of money, make sure to fully fund a Health Savings Account because that has the same tax benefits as an IRA, you can spend the money like IRA money when you retire, plus you can use it to pay your health care expenditures NOW.

If you are generally in good health then you might want to consider catastrophic insurance. Something that would cover you in the event you were in a car accident or suffered a heart attack etc.

A doctors visit for things like a sore throat or flu is around $30 bucks. Typically that might be a co-pay so it's a wash. What most folks want/need is to be protected if something crazy happens and that's where a catastrophic insurance plan can help.

It's typically less expensive than a full blown medical plan. Last time I had one was about 8 years ago and if I remember correctly it was around $1200 a year and covered me for any emergencies up to 250k or something like that.

I can't comment on Obamacare.