Built for the Self-Employed
Healthy People. Healthy Business.
You built a business. Your health coverage should work like part of it — not like something you settle for because you don't have an HR department. Solo exists for exactly one audience: self-employed business owners. This page explains why that focus matters, how Solo is structured differently, and what it means for you and your business.
American health coverage was designed around one assumption: someone else employs you. Big employers pool thousands of people, negotiate as a group, and hand employees a benefits package. Work for yourself, and none of that machinery works for you — you're left buying coverage alone, with none of the scale that makes large-group plans strong.
Solo rebuilds that machinery for the self-employed. Your business — with its own EIN — establishes its own self-funded major medical health plan, then joins a member-owned pool of other self-employed businesses. You get the strength of a large group with the control of owning your own plan. Not a workaround, not a stripped-down product: a structure designed from the ground up for people who work for themselves. If you're weighing this against the marketplace, our blog breaks down the alternatives to ACA marketplace coverage for the self-employed and where each one fits.
When your business establishes the plan, your coverage starts behaving like the rest of your business infrastructure:
- A business expense. Monthly plan costs are generally tax-deductible as a business expense — here's how that works. Confirm the specifics with your tax professional.
- An HSA vehicle. The V2500 and V5000 plan designs are HSA-eligible, so you can layer pre-tax savings for medical expenses on top. See how the pairing works.
- Cost certainty. Your deductible is also your out-of-pocket maximum, so your worst-case year is a known number: your annual contributions plus your deductible. You can plan around it the way you plan around any business cost.
- No surprise math. Once you meet your deductible, eligible medical care is paid at 100% for the rest of the plan year — no added percentage to cover on top.
Solo is a self-funded plan built on a captive structure — your business joins Vault Health Captive – Series C, regulated by the North Carolina Department of Insurance. Because it's a self-funded captive rather than a marketplace product, it operates under a different set of rules, and one design choice drives everything: every member passes a health questionnaire before joining.
That single step is the engine. A screened pool stays healthier; a healthier pool spends less on claims; lower spending means more competitive monthly costs and a stronger plan — which attracts more qualified members, and the cycle compounds. It's a structural advantage, not a promotional discount, and it's why members on average may see lower monthly costs than buying comparable coverage alone. Never guaranteed, and it varies by individual — but the mechanism is real and it works in your favor every year the pool stays healthy.
What doesn't change: the coverage is genuinely comprehensive. Major medical benefits in the spirit of the ACA's essential health categories, preventive care covered at 100% under the federal ACA preventive guidelines, no annual or lifetime dollar limits, and reinsurance above the captive so no covered claim is ever too large.
- Freelancers and 1099 contractors. If you invoice clients and file a Schedule C, you're running a business — and an EIN takes minutes to get if you don't have one yet.
- Consultants, creators, and independent professionals. LLC, S-corp, or sole proprietor — any structure with an active EIN qualifies.
- Owners with employees. You're eligible for Solo yourself, and with Solo Health Plus you can extend coverage to a small team under the same EIN.
- People who take their health seriously. The questionnaire is the front door — it's what keeps the pool, and your costs, healthy.
Two questions decide most of it: do you own your business, and do you take your health seriously? If both are yes, take the two-minute fit check.