These are challenging times for freelancers seeking access to health insurance, and we hear your concerns loud and clear.

Premiums are on the rise. Networks are shrinking. Out-of-pocket costs are onerous.

As Open Enrollment for 2019 opens this week, it’s crucial that freelancers join together to make their collective voices heard. Here’s what you can do:

1. Buy your insurance through Freelancers Union. The plans we offer are the same ones you can access through health insurance exchanges, but when you buy through Freelancers Union, your premiums support advocacy for freelancers at no additional cost to you. (Here’s more about how to make sure your union gets credit.

2. Vote in the midterm elections. As the Freelancing in America 2018 report shows, freelancers are more politically active than the general population, and we need elected officials to hear our concerns. Contact your representatives, make your voice heard, and VOTE.

What Freelancers Union is doing about it

As many of you know, Freelancers Union used to sell our own health insurance plans to freelancers in New York, but the Affordable Care Act prevented groups like ours from offering insurance directly to our members.

We are monitoring new regulations that could allow for group or association coverage, coming up with creative ways for freelancers to access PPO coverage, and are actively pressing policymakers for better solutions for freelancers.

The more members Freelancers Union has and the more people who buy insurance through us, the more power freelancers will have to effect change.

Where you buy insurance matters. Buy through Freelancers Union and invest in a better future for freelancers.