Sidecar Health Review: Health Insurance For Freelancers

Health insurance in the U.S. is extremely expensive. If you're lucky enough to have health insurance through your employer, that can certainly take a chunk out of the high cost. 

However, if you are a freelancer, you’ll have to pay the full cost for health insurance, which can be prohibitive. Sidecar Health is looking to change that. 

Sidecar Health provides low-cost health insurance plans that are ideal for freelancers. As we'll see, that doesn't necessarily mean Sidecar will be for everyone. But if you're an independent contractor or freelancer who's been struggling to afford traditional insurance, Sidecar Health could be worth considering. Read on to find out who might be the best fit.

Who Is Sidecar Health?

Sidecar Health Insurance Solutions, LLC (Sidecar Health) is an alternative health insurance company. It’s CEO is Patrick Quigley. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in El Segundo, CA. It has raised $38 million in funding.

What Do They Offer?

Sidecar Health provides low-cost health insurance. This is not a traditional ACA (Affordable Care Act) health insurance plan. We’ll get into those details a little further down. Sidecar Health is a new kind of insurance that leverages Cash or self-pay pricing and Sidecar Health does allow you to customize your health plan. This flexibility can make the monthly premiums considerably less than ACA health plans.

Sidecar Health coverage options range from a few hundred dollars up to $2 million. You can also adjust your deductible and other components such as adding prescription coverage. Each of these adjustments will change your monthly premium.

What is Cash Price health insurance, you may ask? After being approved for a Sidecar Health plan, you’ll receive a Sidecar Health payment card opposed to a traditional health insurance card, which is how you pay for medical services. In the eyes of your medical service providers, you're essentially viewed as a self-pay patient. Self-pay customers are often charged lower costs than hospitals and doctor's offices bill to insurance companies. Sidecar Health reimburses a fixed rate for medical services based on the average cash prices for those services in your area.

Sidecar Health uses a Benefit Amount for medical services. If your service is more than the Benefit Amount, you’ll have to pay the difference. On the plus side, if the bill is less than the Benefit Amount, you get to pocket the difference. Any medical service must be deemed medically necessary by Sidecar Health to receive coverage.

ACA Health Plans Comparison

Affordable Care Act (or ACA) health plans are those that are found on the Healthcare.gov exchange. If you've already checked out plans on the website, you may be reeling from sticker shock. 

ACA plan monthly premiums for individuals are often in the hundreds of dollars ($500+ is not uncommon) and can be over $1,000 for families. Many plans come with deductibles that are several thousand dollars. This all eats into a significant portion of the average American’s disposable income.

ACA plans cap out-of-pocket costs at $8,550 (2021) for an individual and $17,100 for a family. That doesn’t count monthly premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. That can be a crippling amount to spend on healthcare costs for many Americans.

Is Sidecar Health Really Health Insurance?

Sidecar Health offers a different kind of health insurance. These are not ACA compliant health insurance plans. The technical name for Sidecar Health’s current plans is fixed indemnity insurance, because they pay a fixed amount for each prescription or service. 

Digging a little more into the details, you'll notice that Sidecar Health does not issue the health insurance themselves since they're not an insurance company. Instead, they are the exclusive program manager and administrator of the fixed indemnity insurance plans that are being sold.

Insurance is provided by United States Fire Insurance Company and Sirius America Insurance Company. Sidecar Health is a licensed third party administrator to those companies. “This is nothing like other fixed indemnity products,” Quigley said in an interview with Sun Sentinel. “No other fixed indemnity product covers 170,000 things.”

Despite Quigley's assurances, Sidecar Health is probably best for people without pre-existing conditions and who are in good health. As a non-ACA insurance provider, it's not required to renew your policy if you develop major health issues.

Are There Any Fees?

Yes - you’ll pay a monthly premium and if you pick a plan that has a deductible, coverage doesn’t start until it's met. The rate that you're offered from Sidecar Health will depend on a variety of factors including your age, health, and coverage needs.

Sidecar Health says that it's able to save its members up to 40% over traditional ACA plans. However, it does say that premium rates may increase if you do not add the three-year rate lock.

How Do I Open An Account?

You can visit the Sidecar Health website to get started. Rather than having to wait for an Open Enrollment period, you can sign up or cancel at any time. Coverage begins 14 days after plan enrollment.

Is It Worth It?

While Sidecar Health may not be the best option for some people, if you are in good health, you may be able to save a lot of money by choosing Sidecar Health over a traditional insurance plan.

If you're a college student and a ACA plan is financially prohibitive for you, check out our guide to affordable health insurance for college students. Some notable health plan options include:

• Coverage under parent’s insurance
• School-sponsored health plan
• Medicaid

For everyone else, other ACA alternatives include healthcare sharing programs, employer-sponsored plans, and getting coverage under your partner’s health insurance plan.

Sidecar Health Features