Networks for 1099 workers who travel

A premium is a monthly number. A network is where the plan works at all. For the 1099 worker who is not home most weeks, the second decides the year more than the first.

The four plan types

• HMO: in-network only (emergencies excepted), usually a primary-care gatekeeper.
• EPO: in-network only, no gatekeeper.
• POS: some out-of-network benefit, with a referral.
• PPO: pays outside the network at a lower rate, no referral.

Emergency care is covered everywhere by law; a routine visit, a specialist, a planned procedure 300 miles from home is not, on an HMO or EPO.

Where no marketplace plan is a PPO

In eleven of the 24 states on this site every 2027 marketplace plan is an HMO, EPO or POS: Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Kansas and Nebraska. The state pages list what is filed. A 1099 worker based there who needs care away from home has two choices: accept the network and plan care at home, or buy a private plan with a national network attached, which only makes sense for the healthy and the over-the-line.

Living in two states

The plan follows the primary residence; a marketplace plan from one state does not cover routine care in another unless its network happens to reach. Travel nurses, snowbirds and remote workers who split the year are covered in detail on Plans By State.

Checking a hospital

No insurer-level answer exists; hospitals contract plan by plan. Plans By City reads each insurer’s own 2027 directory file for about 190 hospital systems and says, insurer by insurer, how many of its plans list the hospital. The plan name decides; a licensed agent confirms with the insurer before anyone enrols.