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Health Insurance for Contractors in Michigan: What Can a 1099 Tradesperson With No Employees Actually Get?
Written and reviewed by Dick Tracy, licensed health insurance broker (NPN 20414610) · Published October 16, 2026
Quick answer A licensed contractor or 1099 tradesperson in Michigan with no employees has four doors, not one. Michigan allows private plans priced on your health with a true PPO, so a healthy 40-year-old can often beat the state's 2026 marketplace averages of $384 a month for Bronze and $523 for Silver (KFF), before the 14.2% increase insurers have requested for 2027. You can join a pre-established ERISA group plan solo, no payroll required. And because Michigan workers' comp does not cover a sole proprietor, an accident plan is the first add-on I price for anyone who works on a ladder. All of Michigan, with the details for Brighton, Howell, Oakland County, Plymouth, and metro Detroit. I educate, you decide.
I'm Dick Tracy, a health insurance broker, licensed in Michigan (NPN 20414610), one of 25 states, working with 80+ carriers. I am not local and I won't pretend to be. My office is in Buffalo, New York, and I work with Michigan contractors by phone or Zoom with the plan documents on the screen. I came from the healthcare side of this business, so there is no gag clause on me.
(August 2026, seasonally adjusted, preliminary)
marketplace plan
requested, not yet approved (DIFS)
Construction jobs: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan Economy at a Glance, 199.2 thousand, August 2026. Marketplace: KFF, 2026 open enrollment snapshot, 497,064 Michigan plan selections. Rate requests: Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS), 2027 Rate Change Requests, Individual Market, as filed, updated July 14, 2026.
Why "just go on the marketplace" is bad advice for a Michigan contractor
Nearly half a million Michiganders picked a marketplace plan for 2026, so every contractor I talk to here was told healthcare.gov is the only door. It is not. It is the door that cannot ask health questions and the only door with a premium tax credit, real advantages for the right person. But it prices you on the whole pool, and the credit rides on income you have to guess in advance. A framer's income is not a salary. Michigan is not New York, either: off the marketplace, a Michigan carrier can look at your health and price you on it. If you are healthy, that opens doors a contractor in Buffalo does not have.
The four doors for a Michigan contractor, in the order I open them
Door 1: a private plan priced on your health, with a true PPO
These plans ask health questions, and if you pass, your rate reflects you rather than the sickest person in the pool. The networks are the national PPO type (PHCS and MultiPlan), so you are not locked into one county's hospital system when you live in Howell, pull permits in Plymouth, and your specialist is in Ann Arbor. Many are guaranteed renewable: once in, they cannot drop you for getting sick. For a healthy contractor over the subsidy cliff this is the first door I open, because the math usually maths.
Fits: healthy, no credit coming. Does not fit: anyone with a condition that fails the questions. That is arithmetic, not judgment, and it is why Door 3 exists.
Door 2: a pre-established ERISA group plan you join solo
ERISA is the 1974 federal law that governs employer benefit plans. Group plans already exist under it, and a one-person contracting business can be merged into one: group rates, a true nationwide PPO, a policy you own. No payroll, no employees, one simple compliance step I walk you through. The policy follows you from GC to GC. In New York this is my cheat code. In Michigan it is one of two good doors for a healthy owner, and it tends to win when a spouse and kids are going on too. Here is the full breakdown.
Fits: owners who want a group-style PPO and a price that does not move when their income does.
Door 3: the healthcare.gov marketplace
Michigan uses the federal marketplace. It takes everyone at the same price with no health questions, so it is the safe harbor if your health rules out underwriting, and it is the only place a premium tax credit lives. Since 2026 the enhanced credits are gone, the cliff at 400% of the poverty level is back, and there is no cap on repaying an overpaid credit at tax time. The cliff is $62,600 for one person on 2026 coverage and $63,840 on 2027 coverage; $128,600 and $132,000 for a family of four (the national hub has the lines). Run the free subsidy cliff calculator with your net profit, not gross receipts; the MAGI calculator shows which number counts.
Fits: anyone under the cliff with predictable income, and anyone whose health rules out underwriting. Watch: a plumber who projects $45,000 and bills $80,000 owes the difference back.
Door 4: a lower-premium plan with a fixed-benefit layer on top (the red bucket)
A fixed-benefit plan pays a set dollar amount per service: this much for an office visit, this much per hospital day, this much for a surgery. No network, so you can cash-pay any clinic, hand in the itemized receipt, and the carrier mails you a check. Michigan allows these and DIFS regulates them. They get oversold, so hear me: a foundation, not a roof. I never put a contractor on one by itself. It sits on top of a real medical plan with a higher deductible, so the everyday stuff is handled cheaply and the hospital stay is still covered by something built to carry it.
Fits: healthy people on a tight budget who shop for care like they shop for materials. Does not fit: anyone who thinks the red bucket alone will carry a surgery year.
The ladder question: workers' comp, the sole proprietor, and what happens when you get hurt
This is the part the generic self-employed pages skip, and it is the part that puts contractors out of business. Michigan's Workers' Disability Compensation Act requires coverage once a private employer regularly employs 1 or more employees 35 hours or more a week for 13 weeks or longer during the preceding 52 weeks, or 3 or more employees at one time, part-timers included (MCL 418.115). A one-truck roofer in Brighton with nobody on payroll is under neither line, and the state's own words for the owner are blunt.
So the typical solo contractor in Michigan has no workers' comp paying him when he falls. Most major-medical plans exclude injuries that workers' comp covers; with no comp in the picture, the health plan generally treats a fall off a roof in Howell like any other injury and pays after your deductible. Read your plan's exclusions to be sure. Then look at the deductible. One emergency room visit for a fracture can eat it before lunch, and you are not swinging a hammer for six weeks. The health plan pays the hospital. Nobody pays you.
That is why I layer an accident plan under the medical plan for everybody in the trades. It pays fixed cash per injury, for the fracture, the stitches, the ambulance, the ER visit, the hospital day, the surgery, on the job or off, on top of whatever the medical plan does, in any network. The check goes to you: the deductible, or the truck payment. For a roofer it is the cheapest coverage I sell per dollar of risk, and it is never a substitute for a real medical plan. Here is how I stack the layers for people who work for themselves.
Who this reader is, in Michigan's terms: the holder of a LARA residential builder or residential maintenance and alteration contractor license (carpentry, concrete, masonry, siding, roofing, gutters, tile and marble, basement waterproofing, and other trades; LARA, MCL 339.2401) who works alone or with 1099 subs and has never had a benefits meeting. This page is that meeting.
Southeast Michigan: Brighton, Howell, Oakland County, Plymouth, and metro Detroit
The searches that bring contractors here come from Livingston County, Oakland County, and the Plymouth end of Wayne County. Two things to know if that is you.
County matters on the marketplace, not on private plans. Michigan prices marketplace plans in 16 rating areas, and the counties people search from sit in three of them:
| County (towns people search from) | Michigan rating area | Shares it with |
|---|---|---|
| Livingston (Brighton, Howell) | Rating Area 4 | Washtenaw and Lenawee |
| Oakland (Novi, Troy, Pontiac) | Rating Area 2 | Macomb |
| Wayne (Plymouth, Livonia, Detroit) | Rating Area 1 | Monroe |
Source: CMS, Michigan geographic rating areas (16 rating areas).
So your buddy's plan in Novi may carry a different price in Brighton, and another in Plymouth. A privately underwritten PPO or an ERISA group plan prices you, not your county, and its national network reaches Henry Ford in Detroit and Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor on one card, and Toledo in March if that is where the work is.
Seasonal income needs a plan that does not care about income. Spring through fall is busy. January is not. A credit built on a January income guess is a bad fit for that pattern; a plan priced on your health instead of your income is a good one.
How much does health insurance cost a Michigan contractor?
The honest published anchors, for a 40-year-old buying on their own in 2026, before any credit:
| 2026 marketplace average (age 40, before any subsidy) | Michigan | US average |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest-cost Bronze plan | $384/month | $456/month |
| Benchmark Silver plan | $523/month | $625/month |
| Lowest-cost Gold plan | $561/month | $615/month |
Source: KFF analysis of healthcare.gov data, 2026 plan year.
Those are pool prices, and the pool is getting more expensive. For 2026, DIFS approved an average individual-market increase of 20.2% against 16.8% requested. For 2027, Michigan insurers have asked for an average 14.2%, and the state's list, updated July 14, 2026, carries the label "as filed, subject to DIFS approval." As of October 16, 2026, DIFS had not posted an approved 2027 list; the 2026 approvals came out October 28, 2025, so expect the 2027 answer before open enrollment. Alphabetical, and not a recommendation.
| Company (Michigan individual market) | 2027 requested change | Approved | Current enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alliance Health and Life | 14.1% | TBD | 1,480 |
| Blue Care Network of Michigan | 12.5% | TBD | 113,640 |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Mutual Ins Co | 12.9% | TBD | 48,781 |
| Health Alliance Plan (HAP) | 12.6% | TBD | 2,256 |
| McLaren Health Plan Community | 16.3% | TBD | 4,701 |
| Meridian Health Plan of Michigan, Inc. | 24.4% | TBD | 18,938 |
| Molina Healthcare of Michigan, Inc. | 22.4% | TBD | None (left the individual market for 2026, re-entering for 2027) |
| Oscar Insurance Company | 11.9% | TBD | 7,983 |
| Priority Health | 11.1% | TBD | 138,048 |
| UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, Inc. | 25.5% | TBD | 58,822 |
| Total, individual market | 14.2% | TBD | 394,649 |
Sources: DIFS, 2027 Michigan Health Insurance Rate Change Requests, Individual Market (AS FILED - SUBJECT TO DIFS APPROVAL), updated July 14, 2026; DIFS, 2026 Michigan Health Insurance Rate Change Requests, Individual Market (APPROVED), updated October 28, 2025 (requested 16.8%, approved 20.2%).
Those prices cannot ask whether you are a healthy 40-year-old tile setter or a 40-year-old with three prescriptions, so both pay the same and both pay the increase. Off the marketplace, a healthy contractor is priced on his own health, and the averages stop applying. Your real number moves with age, county, tobacco use, network, and whether the plan is underwritten. Give me those five and I will give you real carrier numbers, usually the same day. Anybody who quotes your premium without asking is guessing.
The cheapest plan costs least on the day nothing happens. The best plan costs least on the day you fall off the ladder. What kind of tank should we build?
Which door is for me?
Healthy, income over the cliff, no credit coming
Door 1 first, then price Door 2 against it, and add the accident layer. A private underwritten PPO usually beats an unsubsidized marketplace plan on price and network, and it is not priced off a pool that just asked for 14.2%. With a family going on, the ERISA group plan can pull ahead.
Healthy, income under the cliff, and steady
Door 3, and check the math. A real credit is hard to beat. One honest line: at or below 138% of the federal poverty level once the state's 5% income disregard is applied to the 133% it prints, about $22,025 a year for one person on the 2026 guideline by my arithmetic, the Healthy Michigan Plan (the state's Medicaid expansion for adults 19 to 64) is probably the best deal there is, and I will say so on the call. Work requirements begin January 1, 2027.
A recent serious diagnosis or a condition that would fail health questions
Door 3, for now. The marketplace cannot turn you down or charge you more. Take it, get well, and we revisit the other doors at a later open enrollment.
Sole proprietor, no workers' comp on yourself
Whichever medical door fits, plus an accident plan, no exceptions. The state does not cover you and nothing else pays you while you heal.
Spouse carries the family on an auto-plant or hospital group plan
Look before you leap. The employer owns that coverage. One layoff and the whole family is shopping at once, with no Michigan mini-COBRA to fall back on (here is what that looks like). Some families put the contractor on his own plan so one pink slip cannot take out everybody.
You just hired your first full-time helper
Different page. Once someone besides you is on payroll, you may be a Michigan small employer, with workers' comp rules to match. The three routes for a crew are on the Michigan small business page.
Healthy Michigan Plan eligibility: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services ("age 19-64"; "at or below 133% of the federal poverty level"; work requirements "beginning on January 1, 2027"). 2026 poverty guideline, one person, $15,960: HHS. The state prints 133% and counts income under the MAGI method, which carries a 5% disregard, so the working line is 138%. The $22,025 is my multiplication.
Don't forget the write-off
Whichever door you pick, the premiums are usually deductible on your federal return through the self-employed health insurance deduction, no itemizing required. It is figured on IRS Form 7206 and lands on Schedule 1 of your 1040, line 17. Two catches from the instructions: you need a net profit on Schedule C, and you cannot take it for any month you were eligible for an employer-subsidized plan, including a spouse's, even if you never signed up. Michigan's income tax is a flat 4.25% for 2026 (Michigan Department of Treasury, April 15, 2026), so ask whether the write-off carries to your Michigan return too. Run your number on the free self-employed deduction calculator, then loop in your CPA, I'm not one.
Common questions from Michigan contractors
How much does health insurance cost for a self-employed contractor in Michigan?
For a 40-year-old in 2026, the published Michigan marketplace averages are $384 a month for the lowest-cost Bronze plan, $523 for the benchmark Silver plan, and $561 for the lowest-cost Gold plan, before any subsidy, per KFF's analysis of healthcare.gov data. The national figures are $456, $625, and $615. Those prices cannot ask about your health, so a healthy roofer and a roofer with three prescriptions pay the same. Off the marketplace, Michigan allows medical underwriting, and a healthy contractor over the subsidy cliff often pays less than those averages.
Do I need workers' comp as a sole proprietor contractor in Michigan, and does my health plan cover a job-site injury?
Michigan's Workers' Disability Compensation Agency requires coverage once a private employer regularly employs 1 or more employees 35 hours or more a week for 13 weeks or longer in the preceding 52 weeks, or 3 or more employees at one time, part-timers included. A sole proprietor with no payroll is under neither line, and the agency's own FAQ says the owner is not considered an employee of anyone and is not covered by the Act. Most major-medical plans exclude injuries workers' comp covers; with no comp in the picture, the health plan generally pays like any other injury, after your deductible. Nobody pays you while you heal.
Can a subcontractor get on the general contractor's health plan in Michigan?
Not as a 1099 sub. A general contractor's group plan is for the people on the GC's payroll. Michigan's workers' comp law draws the same line: under MCL 418.161, a person who maintains a separate business and holds himself out to the public is not the GC's employee, and the statute points to the IRS 20-factor test for the rest. The right move is your own policy, in your own name, that follows you from job to job. A pre-established ERISA group plan or a privately underwritten PPO does exactly that.
What about the subsidy? My income swings from a $40,000 year to a $90,000 year.
That swing is the trap. A marketplace subsidy is based on the income you project for the year, and since 2026 the enhanced subsidies are gone, the 400% of poverty cliff is back, and there is no cap on paying back an overpaid subsidy. For one person the cliff is $62,600 for 2026 coverage and $63,840 for 2027 coverage, using the HHS poverty guidelines; for a family of four it is $128,600 and $132,000. Guess low in January, land a big remodel in June, and you can owe the whole subsidy back in April. A privately underwritten plan or a pre-established ERISA group plan does not care what you earn.
Are Michigan health insurance rates going up in 2027?
The requests say yes. Michigan insurers asked the Department of Insurance and Financial Services for an average individual-market increase of 14.2% for 2027, from 11.1% to 25.5% by company, in filings DIFS updated July 14, 2026 and labeled as filed, subject to DIFS approval. As of October 16, 2026, DIFS had not posted an approved 2027 list. For 2026, DIFS approved an average 20.2% individual-market increase against 16.8% requested. A privately underwritten plan or an ERISA group plan is not priced off that pool, which is why a healthy contractor should look past the marketplace before paying the increase.
Can I deduct my health insurance premiums as a contractor in Michigan?
Usually, yes. The self-employed health insurance deduction lets you write off health premiums on your federal return without itemizing. It is figured on IRS Form 7206 and claimed on Schedule 1 of Form 1040, line 17. It needs a net profit on your Schedule C, and it is off the table for any month you were eligible for an employer-subsidized plan, including a spouse's, even if you did not enroll. Michigan's income tax is a flat 4.25% for 2026, per the Michigan Department of Treasury. Run your number on the free self-employed deduction calculator, then loop in your CPA, I'm not one.
Do I need a broker in Brighton, Oakland County, or Plymouth to buy health insurance as a Michigan contractor?
No. Health insurance in Michigan is sold statewide, and a broker licensed in Michigan can work your case from anywhere. My office is in Buffalo, New York, and I handle Michigan contractors by phone or Zoom. What matters locally is your rating area, which sets marketplace prices: Livingston County (Brighton, Howell) is Rating Area 4 with Washtenaw and Lenawee, Oakland and Macomb are Rating Area 2, and Wayne (Plymouth, Detroit) is Rating Area 1 with Monroe, per CMS. A privately underwritten plan or an ERISA group plan prices you, not your county, and its national PPO reaches Henry Ford in Detroit and Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor.
Thirty minutes on the phone or Zoom, no fee, no hard sell. Bring your age, county, tobacco status, a rough income range, whether anyone is on your payroll, and how you use care. I price the doors that fit you side by side, with the accident layer costed out. I educate, you decide.
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Health insurance broker · NPN 20414610 · Licensed in 25 states, Michigan among them · 80+ carriers · Buffalo, NY
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