Uses your real inputs
It takes your salary, your distributions, your state and what you currently pay.
S-corp owner
S-corp owner health coverage when you are the only employee
You already do the things a real employer does. You run payroll, you take a reasonable salary, you issue yourself a W-2. Then you apply for group coverage and get declined because a company where the only employee is the owner is not a group as far as the carrier is concerned.
Of every business structure, yours is the closest to eligible, which makes the rejection more irritating than most.
Stuck
Where you are stuck.
Your current costs probably run through the business and land on your W-2, and your CPA handles the deduction. That works. What it does not do is get you into a group plan, so you are still buying individual market coverage at individual market cost drivers, and this year without a subsidy behind it.
The result for a lot of S-corp owners is an expensive HMO with a regional network, bought by someone who is doing everything correctly.
Change
What changes.
In a co-employment structure the co-employer is the employer of record for benefits purposes, and your coverage sits inside an established group master plan instead of being written for a company of one. The headcount question that has been ending your applications stops being the deciding factor.
The licensed provider still has the final say. Nobody can promise you an approval.
Setup
You are already set up for this.
Owners already taking a W-2 usually have the least to change. The payroll discipline is in place, the salary is documented, the entity is established. For owners still filing a Schedule C there is normally more groundwork, and how that gets handled is a conversation for your CPA rather than for us.
Calculator first
What the calculator does with your figures.
Removes dead ends
It removes the plans and structures you do not qualify for and shows what remains.
Returns the honest answer
If your current coverage is the better deal, it will say so and you should keep it.
Move to
What you would be moving to.
A group-plan path. Specialists without a referral, a network that works across state lines, and a materially better chance your existing doctors are already in it.
Dental, vision, a Vestwell retirement plan and workers compensation can run through the same structure if you want them. None of them is required to get your health number.
For the network details, read the Group-plan access page.
Objections
The questions S-corp owners ask first.
I already deduct my current costs, so this is handled.
The deduction and the cost are separate problems. You can be deducting correctly and still be paying individual market rates for a narrow network.
My CPA set this up. Am I unwinding their work?
No. Payroll, salary and entity stay as they are. What changes is where the health coverage comes from. Bring your CPA in.
I only have myself and maybe a contractor.
That is the normal case here.
Is this cheaper?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. That is what the calculation is for.
FAQ
S-corp owner coverage questions.
You have already built the structure. See what it is worth.