Remodeling contractors are usually well insured and often uninsured at the same time. The business carries general liability and workers' compensation because clients and states demand it. The owner frequently has nothing covering their own health.
Workers' Comp Is Not Your Health Insurance
This is worth being blunt about, because the confusion is widespread and expensive.
Workers' compensation covers your employees for injuries arising out of the work. In most states a sole proprietor or LLC member is excluded from their own policy by default and has to elect coverage to be included at all — and even then it responds only to work injuries.
It does nothing for anything else: a heart attack, a diagnosis, your spouse's surgery, your child's asthma, an injury on a Saturday. Those are health insurance, which is a separate product you buy separately. Carrying a comp policy for a four-man crew leaves the owner's own medical risk entirely uncovered.
Household Size Moves the Line More Than Income Does
Where the credit ends in 2026, by household
| Household | 400% of poverty |
|---|---|
| One person | $62,600 |
| Couple | $84,600 |
| Family of four | $128,600 |
Take $95,000 of net profit. For a single filer that is around 607% of the 2026 poverty guideline and there is no credit at all. For a family of four it is about 295% of the $32,150 guideline — inside subsidy range, with the benchmark Silver contribution capped at 9.96% of income.
Same business, same revenue, completely different answer. Contractors who assume they earn too much to qualify are frequently wrong, and it is household size that makes them wrong.
Subtract Before You Compare
At $95,000, self-employment tax is $95,000 × 0.9235 × 0.153, roughly $13,423, of which about $6,711 is deductible. Your health premiums come off as well. Both subtractions happen before your income meets the poverty table, and skipping them makes you look further above the line than you are.
Subcontractors Are Not Employees, and the Distinction Is Not Yours to Declare
Whether a framer or a tile setter is your employee or a genuine subcontractor is decided by how the work is controlled — who sets the hours, who supplies the tools, who carries the risk of profit and loss — not by what the paperwork calls them or whether you issue a 1099.
It matters here because misclassification exposes you to back payroll tax and comp premium, and because if you do have employees, offering them coverage puts you in group insurance, which changes your own answer as well.
Open Enrollment Falls in Your Quiet Season, Which Helps
Marketplace open enrollment runs from 1 November, which for most remodelers lands when the schedule is thinning and there is finally time to look at it. That is worth using deliberately rather than letting it pass.
Outside that window you need a qualifying life event — marriage, a birth, losing other coverage, a permanent move. A slow quarter is not one, and neither is deciding you want cover after an injury. If you are uninsured now, November is the appointment to keep.
The Premium Comes Off Before Tax
With net self-employment profit and no employer plan available through a spouse, 100% of premiums are deductible on Schedule 1, Line 17, above the line, up to your net self-employment income. At $95,000 with a $900 monthly premium that is $10,800 deducted, roughly $2,592 at a 24% marginal rate.
If you carry comp for a crew and have never priced your own coverage, call (713) 575-9904.