Along the South Jersey shore, health insurance keeps our broker team busy all year. As a concierge agency, Uncle Sheldon Insurance works with families, self-employed folks and small business owners from Brigantine and Absecon down through Ventnor, Longport, Ocean City and Sea Isle City, all the way to the Wildwoods. We line up plans from different carriers, take care of the enrollment, and pick up the phone when a bill or a denied claim doesn’t look right.
Carriers pay brokers, so a plan’s price doesn’t change when you come through our team instead of signing up alone. Anyone getting close to 65 can lean on our Medicare side when the time comes.
What New Jersey Does Its Own Way
New Jersey runs its own marketplace, GetCoveredNJ, instead of the federal site, and a few things come with that.
State savings on top of federal help. Many households who buy through the marketplace get an extra state subsidy, which can bring the monthly price down further than federal help alone.
A longer open enrollment. The window generally stays open into late January, past the federal deadline.
A coverage requirement. New Jersey still expects most residents to carry health insurance and can add a charge to the state tax return for months without it.
Summer Money, Winter Math
A lot of shore income lands between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Think of a restaurant owner in Margate, a charter captain out of Cape May, or someone running rentals in Avalon and Stone Harbor. Marketplace savings are based on your estimate for the whole year, not what a great August looked like. Estimate high and you may overpay all year. Estimate low and some of that help can come back due at tax time. We walk through the number with you and update it if the season comes in stronger or softer than planned.
When income drops hard in the off season, or there are kids in the house, NJ FamilyCare can suit you better than a marketplace plan. If it looks like you might qualify, we’ll tell you.
Barrier Islands and the Mainland
On the islands, the closest emergency room is usually across a causeway, so before picking a plan it’s worth checking that the hospital you’d actually drive to is in network, whether that’s in Somers Point, Galloway or Cape May Court House. We run your doctors and prescriptions through each plan before you enroll, not after.
Plenty of our clients live on the mainland side too, in Egg Harbor Township, Galloway, Linwood, Northfield, Mays Landing, Hammonton and Rio Grande. Owners who want to cover a crew can look at group plans for your business.
Call us from Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood or West Cape May, year round or only down the shore on weekends, and you’ll get the people who set up your plan in the first place.