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PPO Health Insurance in Pennsylvania for the Self-Employed: Where to Find It
Ask for a PPO on Pennie in Pennsylvania and you'll mostly find HMOs and EPOs. Here's why, and where PPOs still live.
Why marketplace PPOs vanished
Guaranteed-issue plans attract the highest-cost members, and broad PPO networks are expensive to run for that population. Carriers like Highmark, Independence Blue Cross, UPMC Health Plan, Capital Blue Cross, and Geisinger responded by narrowing networks and dropping out-of-network benefits. The result: most individual plans in Pennsylvania are built around one hospital system.
Where PPOs still exist
In the private shared-network market. Carriers lease the national Cigna, Aetna and PHCS PPO PPO networks — the same networks large employers use — and sell underwritten plans on them. No referrals, any in-network specialist, coverage in every state. For self-employed people who travel or want to choose their own doctors, this is usually the only way to get a PPO.
What a Pennsylvania PPO costs
For healthy individuals, roughly $290–$600 a month depending on age and deductible; families roughly $800–$1,300. You can see live prices on our quoter.
Who qualifies
These plans are underwritten. Generally healthy applicants with no major pre-existing conditions. If that's not you, a marketplace plan is the right answer and we'll say so. Pennsylvania runs its own marketplace, Pennie, and hospital systems like UPMC and Jefferson are so central that many buyers choose a plan around their doctors — which is exactly what a PPO network question looks like.
Check your options to see the PPOs available in your ZIP.