The best health plan in America isn’t something you can buy off the exchange. It’s not what your carrier calls a “Platinum PPO.” And it sure as hell isn’t anything administered by a government contractor with a call center in three time zones.
No, the gold standard is a self-funded health plan created by a savvy employer. One with enough resolve to forgo the national networks, negotiate direct hospital contracts, add direct primary care where available, and back it with Reference-Based Pricing. It is not easy. It takes hard work and a much deeper knowledge pool than buying overpriced and poorly serviced insurance products off the shelf.
The challenge is that not everyone works for that kind of employer, and not every employer can offer it. To get there, you must be able to get stop-loss insurance and self-fund a health plan.
Individual (and even small group) coverage is not my specialty. It is a different set of policies, pricing protocols, contracts, sometimes networks, and even representatives within the insurance companies themselves. People who practice in this area purchase special software to be able to quote age-banded, small-group policies. They know that you can offer 18 plans within one small group. There is no underwriting, actuarial work, or carrier negotiation. The prices are filed with the state and pulled from algorithmic shelfing based on every dependent's age and zip code. It is a high-volume work. It’s not my world.
Nevertheless, it is the question I get most from folks, mostly Armstrong and Getty listeners. And I get that. You feel trapped and want to know what the heck you can do to escape this rat race. So, this will be the one and only time I will address this topic in my career.
If you're a freelancer, a 1099er, or just someone who refuses to shovel five figures a year into a rigged premium system, you can still opt out without going uninsured. You just have to build your own coverage.
Here’s how.
Step One: Lock In a Direct Primary Care (DPC) Doctor
Start here. Don’t overthink it. Go to dpcfrontier.com, find a DPC doc near you, and sign up.
Direct Primary Care is a subscription—usually around $60 to $100/month—that gets you unlimited access to a physician who works directly for you. No billing codes. No networks. No “call back between 1–4 p.m. and press 6 for maybe.”
These doctors take their time. They know your history. They text you back. Some even make house calls. It’s medicine the way it used to be, before spreadsheets and stock tickers took over.
This alone knocks out 80% of your healthcare needs. And it does so with no deductible games, no surprise bills, and no carrier in your exam room asking you to bend over or cough.
I just had my first visit with a new DPC doctor in my area. She is a younger physician who burned out in a large metropolitan area and moved to the glorious foothill micro-utopia of Galt’s Gulch. Ha. In her case, it is $109 a month, but so incredibly well worth it. My first visit? A 1-hour physical – and a house call at that! Try to get that with your Purple Cross or King of Prussia plan.
Fun fact, did you know that doctors in the legacy system – you know the one that is dying and tanking American business – are responsible for 2,500 patients per year. Yep, on a good day, your doc will look up from the feverish typing behind their monitor and make eye contact with you for about 85 seconds of your 10-minute visit before they get onto the next 29 patients that day. DPC doctors virtually always limit themselves to 400 to 600 patients, total. Mine is so conscientious that she has limited herself to 100 this first year. Yes, I struck gold in the Gulch. There is no doubt.
Step Two: Add a Catastrophic Backstop – Health Share or Marketplace Plan
Next, you need something in your back pocket for the big stuff. A cancer diagnosis. A car crash. Appendicitis on vacation. For this, you’ve got three main paths—and which one you pick depends on your tolerance for risk and bureaucracy.
Option A: Health Sharing Program
Health shares are community-based platforms where people pitch in to cover each other’s large medical expenses. They’re not insurance, and they don’t pretend to be. Think of them like medical co-ops—built on trust, not claims adjusters.
Faith-based options like Christian Healthcare Ministries or Samaritan Ministries have been around for decades. Secular platforms like CrowdHealth and Sedera take a tech-forward, peer-to-peer approach.
They’re often far cheaper than insurance and more transparent. But be warned: they don’t cover everything, and you have to read the fine print like your life depends on it. Because one day, it might.
Now, if you live in a state with an individual mandate, like California, you need to know that secular health shares generally do not exempt you from the state penalty, while ministry-based health shares may. Here is California’s position on the subject.
That means unless you’re in a qualifying religious health share that’s been operating since before Y2K (yes, really), the state will treat you as uninsured. CrowdHealth, Sedera, and other newer or non-religious programs? They don’t qualify. You’ll pay the tax unless you have a hardship exemption or pair your share with a qualifying plan.
Which brings us to…
Option B: Marketplace Bronze or Catastrophic Plan
This is the safer play if you want to stay out of penalty territory. Go to the Obamacare exchange and find the cheapest Bronze or catastrophic plan available. You’re not buying rich benefits here—you’re just buying a parachute and checking the regulatory box.
Use your DPC for all regular care. Use the plan for true emergencies. That’s it. You now have a legal safety net and financial protection without paying bloated premiums for a PPO card that rarely works as advertised.
Option C: Cheapest Available Employer Plan
If you happen to work at an employer that offers free or very low-cost high-deductible care, you can take that plan as your backstop against the horrors of life and then purchase a DPC with your own cash.
Step Three: Add Gap Fillers (Only If You Have To)
At this point, most people are good. DPC + health share or Bronze plan gets you covered for the likely and the catastrophic.
But if you’re cash-light or just want tighter protection, you can layer in:
Accident policies to cover ER visits or fractures
Critical illness coverage for cancer, heart attack, or stroke
Hospital indemnity plans to cover overnight stays
Whether you add these depends entirely on your liquidity. Can you write a $10,000 check without wrecking your finances? If yes, skip the supplements. If not, consider buying just enough to sleep at night—but no more than that.
Remember Craig’s Core Principle:
Give away as few premium dollars as you possibly can.
How about that for advice from “an insurance broker?”
You don’t need six policies. You need one good doctor, a financial floor, and a clear understanding of what you’re protecting yourself against.
The Bottom Line: Insurance Shouldn’t Be a Religion
You don’t need to tithe to a national carrier to access care, and you don’t need to accept that $2,000/month premiums and $9,000 deductibles are just “how it is.”
If you’ve got access to a savvy self-funded plan backed by direct contracts or Reference-Based Pricing? Take it. That’s the best option in the country right now.
But if you don’t? Build your own. Start with DPC. Add a backstop. Layer in supplemental policies only if you need it. Stay within the rules if your state demands it, but don’t pay more than you have to just to feel “insured.”
The goal isn’t more coverage. It’s better care, fewer middlemen, and putting yourself, not a carrier, at the center of your healthcare decisions.
I am on Medicare. Would your plan work? I would get a DPC and then the hospitalization part of Medicare Part A?