What I wish I’d known about health insurance when starting a business | Morning – Reno Gazette Journal

This opinion column was submitted by Matt Morning, founder and director of photography at Kimera Collective, a full-service production agency in Reno.

Excitement, fear, hope, apprehension — those are all emotions you feel when you start a small business. At least, that’s how I felt when I started mine, and I’ll be the first to admit that the last thing on my mind when I started Kimera, my video production company in Reno, was health insurance benefits.

I was what the insurance industry calls a “young invincible” — I am relatively healthy and thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I had been able to stay on my parents’ insurance until I was 26. After that, I was focused on hustling and growing my business. Premiums, deductibles and co-pays were not necessarily at the top of my list of priorities. I only had one other employee at the time and offering benefits of any kind just wasn’t in the cards for me as a business owner just trying to get my foundation started.

All of that changed when my wife, who was also uninsured, got pregnant and we were preparing for life with a baby. Our lives weren’t just about two young “healthy” adults with the “whatever happens, happens” mindset anymore. My wife needed quality health care and doctors’ visits during her pregnancy and we had to think about the health of our new baby. Again, there was excitement, fear, hope and apprehension when becoming a parent, but now, health insurance coverage really mattered. And that’s when I discovered that I was eligible to get enrolled in coverage through Nevada Health Link, the state’s online health insurance marketplace.

As someone who had very little experience with insurance, I was relieved that Nevada Health Link wasn’t a faceless bureaucracy, but had actual people — Nevadans — on their team who explained my insurance options and advocated on my family’s behalf when we needed help navigating our coverage.

Through Nevada Health Link, I was able to access federal subsidies that actually made insurance affordable for my family while I was still growing my business. I utilized coverage from the marketplace for five years and advised my other employee to do the same. I turned from being the young invincible who just hoped for the best, to a true health insurance advocate, and plus, learned a lot that would eventually help my business when I got to a place where I could offer benefits.

Luckily, in the last few years, my business has successfully grown to a place where I am able to offer coverage to my employees, something that gives me pride — but also feels like how the government should be supporting entrepreneurship. The resources that were available to me through Nevada Health Link were just as valuable as the small business loans or tax deductions for business expenses. Using Nevada Health Link also helped me understand what kind of coverage would be most useful to my employees once I was able to start offering health insurance benefits — by window shopping for plans and carriers, it gave me a greater sense of the options and coverage included in different plans.

The pandemic has spurred the creation of thousands of new businesses here in Nevada and I am excited to see that there has also been a dramatic increase in the number of Nevadans utilizing Nevada Health Link for coverage; more than 100,000 people enrolled in coverage for 2022. I encourage anyone who has started a new business to take a look at the insurance options that are available through Nevada Health Link. As a father and business owner, Nevada Health Link has been crucial to my family’s health and the prosperity of my business. It might not be the end goal for many small businesses, but it’s definitely a first step and a quality option for employers and employees who aren’t insured through their employer (yet).

Like any journey worth making, it has had significant challenges but I will always be thankful that Nevada Health Link was there to lighten the load.

Matt Morning is the founder and director of photography at Kimera Collective, a full-service production agency in Reno.