If you’ve ever dreamed of leaving your day job to work freelance from home or to start a small business of any kind, one major obstacle may now be out of your way. Here’s a summary, culled from a Blouin Art Info article, of how your ability to purchase health care insurance will be improved, as of the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday.

States will now be required to form “exchanges” which will then organize the insurance market and allow small businesses and individuals to form groups. By joining a health care group, in terms of insurance premiums and deductible costs it will be as if you are working for a large corporation, with the buying power of a corporation to purchase inexpensive health care plans for  its employees. Any pre-existing conditions you have will not play a role in your ability to join a group.

Also, if you earn up to 400% of the poverty level ($43,320 for an individual), you are eligible for some degree of subsidy from the federal government that will either limit the percentage of your income that you pay for insurance, or will help you with out-of-pocket expenses.

If you work for a small business your employer can join a group, which should allow you to purchase a health care insurance plan with costs similar to those paid by a person working for a corporation.

Further, small business owners (with 25 or fewer full-time or 50 part-time employees, who earn on average $50,000/year or less) can receive subsidies from the federal government in order to purchase healthcare for their employees.

These  provisions are being phased in slowly. Even New York, which has already set up an exchange by executive order, will not have this fully operational until January 2014. All states must have formed these exchanges by 2014.

The Great Recession has forced large numbers of people out of work. Many have started working for themselves on an interim basis, knowing that without health care insurance, they must go back to a “day job” for the sake of benefits…though they might find themselves preferring self-employment. This Supreme Court decision makes the self-employment option more feasible. It could even help us move from the corporate employment model on which we’ve become so dependent, to a model that’s more Jeffersonian.

It may be time to start thinking about when you can make YOUR break…to begin the process of finding your calling, considering the kind of business you’d like to create, researching funding options, and writing your business plan.

As a coach, I’d be happy to help you begin working on these issues. You can contact me for a free consultation and one free coaching session – followed by a 50% Independence Day discount if you retain my services for 4 – 12 sessions. Just email me at bonnie@justventurescoaching.com to schedule a consultation.

If you’re dissatisfied with working for others, begin planning your independence. It all begins with that step.