Hey, I'm an insurance agent for State Farm, and while ya don't usually think about State Farm for Health insurance, I still have to have a license for it. So I know a few things.

First of all: you're self-employed, so you want coverage for yourself, your wife, and of course any kids. Are you looking strictly for Health, or also Disability? I'll stick to Health for now, we'll talk Disability quickly in a minute (for this discussion, it's the same thing as "Supplemental Insurance").

The type of policy you want is, of course, based on what you want covered. I'll assume you want as much covered as possible. There are a few options for you:

I. Major Medical Insurance Policy. This covers your family from medical expenses in two ways:
1) $/day in hospital, and if there is anything they didn't cover in that, after a deductible (that you pay),
2) a co-insurance for ANY expense. (the insurance company pays 80%, you pay 20% for example)

II. A Managed Health Care option
1) HMO
a) can only go to doctors "in-network" so if you have a doc that you like, make sure he's in that network before you sign the contract
b) utilizes co-payments instead of co-insurance (instead of paying 20% of whatever, you'd pay a set $ figure)
c) All treatments must be authorized by the HMO before it can begin (except for emergencies of course)
2) PPO
a) Can have a co-payment
b) Broader choice of docs
c) May use docs outside of "network," insurance company will just pay less of the cost
3) High Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Account
a) To Lower premiums, these have huge deductibles (the minimum changes each year, but I've heard some as low as $1,200)
b) Also had a maximum out-of pocket cost per year (includes deductibles and co-pays)
c) Health Savings Accounts are part of these, it's an account that you can put in a specific $ figure each year ($ ammount changes each year) but helps you save for
any nessiccary expenses


Does this help?

As far as providers go, The guys above have named some good options.

Supplemental Insurance:
This is more like a Disability policy, something that pays cash when you get hurt (disabled) can can't work. This helps you pay bills, the $ amount that you get is decided upon by you and the agent you work with.