A shot at health insurance, and the new Driver Advocacy Network, with CDLDU grassroots group

Indiana-headquartered owner-operator, and father of five, Dan Koors invokes a big number at the top of the podcast this week -- 27%, the approximate percentage of drivers running without health insurance. That's inclusive of company drivers, many with ready access to carrier benefits packages. Among owner-operators, the percentage is certainly higher than 27%. Overdrive’s most recent estimate with polling of the owner-operator audience this past month put the number at 40%.

While that’s not the absolute highest percentage we’ve ever seen, it’s a good measure above the rough third that was once a reliable poll result for the question of whether an owner was running with health insurance a decade ago: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/14885028/tough-health-care-choices

This week on Overdrive Radio, we dive into a new resource for health insurance that is something of a new variation on an old theme. Like groups such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the National Association of Independent Truckers, both of whom have health-insurance resources for members of varying types, the young CDL Drivers Unlimited group has dipped its toe, or sunk a whole foot into, the area with a new partnership with the Benefits Management Team, or BMT. They’re a health insurance consultant and broker who can work with a potential insured in any state and with knowledge of what’s available in the health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, how available premium subsidies work for individuals, and much more.

The company does quite a lot to really vet health-care bills, too, to be an advocate for patients through its MediShield service, examining itemized invoices for unnecessary charges in further efforts to save on costs. And it’s the long rising cost of health care, of course, that is a primary reason for the increasing numbers of those opting out of the health insurance system entirely, and a critical reason among small-business owner-operators.

Yet owner-operator Dan Koors is not one of them. He views the necessity of insurance as a business decision, ultimately, and crucial to protect the business from catastrophe.

So with a family of seven, including himself, to insure, how’s he done it? In this edition of Overdrive Radio we’ll hear that story, and another one. How the BMT company’s knowledge of the insurance markets and the Affordable Care Act exchanges, and how they work in tandem with available subsidies, led Koors to a strange realization. He’s now paying a little more in taxes than he might otherwise as a result, but he’s netting nearly $7,000 with a dramatic reduction in insurance premiums.

CDL Drivers Unlimited is making other strides, too, with what they’re calling the Driver Advocacy Network, aimed to, as Koors sees it, boost the efforts of men and women behind the wheel to make headway influencing local, state and national policy and law to the benefit of truckers.

We’ll also hear from CDL Drivers Unlimited founding members Lee and Lisa Schmitt, headquartered in Wisconsin, on that score, and the group's plans for MATS.

Other health-related resources from past coverage:

**Biz risk of failing health: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15302424/owneroperators-who-recognize-the-risk-of-failing-health

**Medicare: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15302142/nows-the-time-to-understand-medicare-if-getting-close-to-65

**Owner-op health-insurance gain in COVID-relief law: https://www.overdriveonline.com/life/article/15064881/health-insurance-savings-via-aca-exchanges-expanded

**Health-share plans: https://www.overdriveonline.com/life/article/14972980/healthshare-plans-offer-insurance-alternative-for-ownerops

As mentioned in the podcast, Rudy Yakym Jr.'s reckoning with time pressures post-ELD mandate: https://www.overdriveonline.com/electronic-logging-devices/article/14895603/operational-challenges-to-ownerops-after-the-eld-mandate