The Benefits Gap Between Solopreneurs and Corporate Employees Is Finally Closing

Ask any solopreneur what keeps them up at night, and healthcare tends to make the list. Not just the cost, though that alone is significant, but the entire experience of navigating the complexities of health insurance without the infrastructure that corporate employment provides.

On the marketplace, you are one person trying to get the rates that a company of 500 negotiates without thinking about it. The deductibles are high, the networks are limited, and the information available to help you make a good decision is overwhelming and unhelpful in practice.

For a long time, this was simply the tradeoff of going out on your own. It no longer has to be.

The Part of the S-Corp Conversation That Usually Gets Left Out

If you’ve spent any time in founder communities, you’ve heard about the tax advantages of structuring as an S-Corp. The numbers are real: By paying yourself a reasonable salary and taking remaining profit as distributions, you reduce the portion of your income subject to self-employment tax.

But the tax savings are only part of what an S-Corp unlocks. The less-discussed benefit is what the payroll structure makes possible: access to payroll-based benefits. And that distinction matters more than most solopreneurs realize.

When you run payroll through an S-Corp, you’re no longer just a self-employed individual navigating the individual market. You become both the employee and the employer, which opens the door to a category of benefits that have historically been available only to people working inside larger organizations, including group health insurance.

How Lettuce Makes Group Coverage Available to Solo Founders

Lettuce operates as a Professional Employer Organization, or PEO. The model works by pooling members together so that solo S-Corp founders gain the same collective buying power as mid-size companies when they use platforms like ADP or Justworks.

Individually, a solopreneur shopping for health insurance is a group of one. Within a PEO, that same founder is part of a much larger group, which changes which insurers are available, are willing to offer, and at what price.

Through Lettuce's partnership with Curative, members now have access to a PPO plan built specifically around this model. Here's what that looks like in practice:

The network

More than one million in-network providers across the country, accessible through a standard PPO structure.

The cost-sharing model

$0 deductible and $0 copays for in-network care after completing a Baseline Visit within the first 120 days of enrollment. (More on that in a moment.)

2026 monthly premiums

Premiums will change each year at renewal, but here are the current rates as of June 2026.

• Individual: approximately $696 per month
• Employee + spouse: approximately $1,670 per month
• Family: approximately $2,300 per month

Current availability

Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Dental and vision coverage are not yet available through this benefit but are expected to launch later in 2026.

A Transparent Look at the Baseline Visit Requirement

The $0 deductible and $0 copay structure is genuinely valuable, and it comes with one condition worth understanding before you enroll.

To access and maintain those benefits, members must complete a Baseline Visit within 120 days of joining the plan. This is a foundational health assessment that helps Curative understand your health picture and serve you more effectively as a member.

If you don't complete the Baseline Visit within that window, you lose access to the $0 cost structure for in-network care.

This is worth treating as a feature rather than fine print. The Baseline Visit creates a starting point for your care, establishes a provider relationship from day one, and is the mechanism that makes the cost model sustainable. For most people who actually use their health insurance, completing an initial visit early is straightforward. For people who tend to enroll in plans but not engage with them, this is an important detail to consider before signing up.

What This Actually Changes for Solopreneurs

The standard marketplace experience asks solo founders to choose between plans that are expensive with decent coverage, or technically affordable with deductibles high enough that the coverage barely activates before you've already paid thousands out of pocket. For the self-employed without employer contributions, the math adds up fast.

Average family premiums for employer-sponsored coverage hit nearly $27,000 in 2025, and that's with employers covering the majority of the cost. Solopreneurs shopping the individual market pay the full premium themselves, with no pooled negotiating power to share the burden.

The Lettuce model changes the math in two directions at once. The S-Corp structure reduces your tax liability (an average of $10,000-$15,000 per year for Pro members), and the PEO model gives you access to group coverage that individual market shopping simply cannot replicate. The combination meaningfully shifts the financial picture of going solo.

This is the kind of infrastructure that has historically existed for people inside companies. Bringing it to founders who are building on their own is a structural shift that entrepreneurs have been waiting for.

Is This Health Insurance Option the Right Move for You?

A few questions worth working through if you're considering this path:

Are you currently structured as an S-Corp?

The health insurance benefit is available through the Lettuce PEO model, which requires an S-Corp structure. If you're not yet set up that way, Lettuce can help you make that transition to get this benefit.

Are you in one of the covered states?

Coverage is currently available in 15 states: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OR, TX, UT, and VA. If you're outside those states, this specific plan isn't available to you yet, though the S-Corp tax advantages still apply.

Are you willing to complete the Baseline Visit?

The $0 deductible and copay structure depends on it. If you're enrolling, make the visit a priority in your first few months.

How does the premium compare to what you're currently paying?

Run the numbers against your current marketplace plan, factoring in your deductible and typical out-of-pocket spend. For many solopreneurs, particularly those with families, the comparison is favorable.

The Entreprenista Takeaway

Healthcare has been one of the most consistent pain points in the solopreneur experience, and for a long time, there was no easy solution.

Lettuce has built a first-of-its-kind system that uses the S-Corp structure not just as a tax strategy but as a gateway to the kind of collective buying power that has always existed on the corporate side of the employment divide. Additionally, you don’t have to wait for open enrollment to take advantage of this benefit. Becoming an S-Corp or joining Lettuce is considered a “life-changing event,” so you can make adjustments whenever you make those changes.

If you've been putting off dealing with your health insurance because your options felt limited and the decision overwhelming, this is a new solution worth a closer look.

Learn more and explore your options at lettuce.co/healthcare.

This article was created in partnership with Lettuce, a longstanding Entreprenista partner. All plan details, premiums, and availability information reflect current offerings and may change. Lettuce Pro members average approximately $15,000 in annual tax savings; individual results vary.