Frequently, business owners that are sole proprietors rely on the exemption from Workers Compensation that is available in many sates. Sometimes, the rationale is that they already have Health Insurance and so why cover themselves twice? The truth is that, most of the time, their Health coverage won’t cover workplace injuries.
Most Health plans have an exclusion for injury or illness that would be covered under Workers Compensation.
There is sometimes an option, called 24-hour coverage, where a group Health plan add’s or includes work-related injuries and thus covers the member on or off the job. This is a special provision that needs to be added, however. It is very unlikely to be included in a regular Health plan unless requested. Some sole-proprietors are covered under the Health plan for their spouse. For them, the only solution is to obtain a Workers Compensation policy.
Lastly, loss of income following an injury would never be covered on a 24-hour Health plan. Either a Disability Income policy or Workers Compensation policy would be needed.