Set against the backdrop of recent economic uncertainty and the need by many organisations to reassess their employment practices, increasing numbers of people now opting to go self-employed. It's the ultimate dream for many people, giving them more freedom, new opportunities and the chance to take control of their working lives. It's not all necessarily good news though. The security offered by employers in the form of holiday pay, insurance cover and sick pay must now be met by the individual. Health insurance offers an important support service to anyone going it alone and reliant largely on their own time and efforts to keep the business moving forward and the cash coming in.

Things will probably run fine, until you fall ill. What would happen then? Who would run your business, fulfil your orders, win new business and keep things on an even keel? You need an income, an amount of regular money to support you and your family. Income to cover your everyday living expenses. How would you retain control over your time and your business? What if you were laid up ill for any length of time? The hard fact is that without private health insurance for you and your family you would probably struggle to make ends meet. The longer your health suffered the more your business would suffer.

Taking out health insurance can make all the difference for self-employed people. It offers you the ability to retain a level of control over your business despite the threat that your illness poses. If you are self-employed you will know only too well how important it is to manage limited resources with optimum efficiency. Perhaps your most vital resource other than cash in the bank is time. Time always seems to be at a premium when you are working hard to build your business, and anything you can do to make time work harder and more profitably for you can only be a good thing. If you need quick diagnosis or rapid treatment, have an accident, find yourself unable to work over the long term or suffer a disability, your health insurance can be there to help you through and retain control.

Of course policies vary widely and the nature of cover you can expect will range from low cost policies offering limited scope such as simple dental cover to those with wide-ranging and comprehensive benefits. Some of the issues that might help you choose the right sort of health insurance for your specific type of business and lifestyle might include whether you want initial tests, consulting fees, hospital and accommodation charges covered. You may have preferences too when it comes to things such as home nursing, alternative therapies and the payment of GP fees. Some insurers will offer no-claims discounts whilst others will include specialist discounts on health clubs and other health related features.

As always, the deeper and broader the cover the higher the premiums. Critical illness cover in the form of a lump sum and Income Protection Cover in the form of monthly income until you have been assessed as having made a satisfactory return to health are at the top end of the scale and will of course be the most expensive forms of cover. When considering the cots of self-employed health insurance it's worth bearing in mind that your policy may very well be acceptable as a genuine business expense and therefore tax deductible.

Take a good look at the market place to make sure that you find a policy that you feel addresses the most important aspects of health cover for you. Try using a comparison site to check and compare the options. Enter your information only once to have the market placed quickly interrogated and your best options put before you. Always be sure to check the small print. Some polices for example won't pay out until a year or two years after you sign up. Others might have particular criteria when it comes to occupation, location, pre-existing health conditions or age, so check the small print carefully.