Painter Pay and Health Insurance by State

Why Painters should read this table differently

Injury exposure means the number that matters is the out-of-pocket maximum, not the premium. A single ER visit and follow-up can hit that ceiling in one month, so these pages rank states by worst-case annual exposure rather than by monthly cost.

Occupational context: Solvent and VOC inhalation; ladder falls; shoulder strain. Note that this affects which plan design fits — it does not affect eligibility or price. Under the ACA, carriers may not rate by occupation or health history, so a painter and an office worker of the same age in the same county see the same filed premium.

If you are self-employed

Most Painters buying their own coverage are also deducting it. Categories that typically apply to this trade: Sprayers, ladders, paint, van, liability insurance. Self-employed health insurance premiums are generally deductible above the line under IRC §162(l) when you are not eligible for an employer plan through a spouse. That is a tax question, not an insurance one — confirm it with your CPA.

The subsidy math matters more than the premium: premium tax credits phase with household income, so two Painters in the same county with different net income can pay very different amounts for the identical plan.

How do painters get health insurance?

Painters without a plan through an employer or agency have four routes:

• The marketplace (HealthCare.gov or your state’s own exchange). With household income under 400% of the poverty line — $62,600 for one person for 2026 coverage ($63,840 for 2027 coverage) — the premium tax credit caps what the benchmark Silver plan costs you at a share of income. The BLS median for Painters, Construction and Maintenance is under that line in 23 of the 23 states published here.
• A spouse’s employer plan. If it offers family coverage, price it against the marketplace: since 2023 your family’s eligibility for the credit is judged on what the family plan costs, not just the employee’s own coverage.
• A group plan or an ICHRA, once you have employees of your own.
• A privately underwritten plan, if you are healthy and over the line. It can cost less than full-price marketplace coverage; it covers less, and its price depends on your health answers.

How much does a painter make?

BLS puts the median wage for Painters, Construction and Maintenance (SOC 47-2141) at $38,420 in Arkansas up to $62,390 in Illinois, across the 23 states where BLS prints a median (May 2024). Starting pay — the 10th percentile — runs from $28,280 (Nebraska) to $39,380 (Nevada). The top 10% earn more than $109,220 in Illinois. These figures count employees; the self-employed are not in the BLS survey, so treat them as the going rate for the work, not your own number. Each state’s pay is in the table above.

What does health insurance cost a painter?

Insurers cannot charge more for your occupation: marketplace prices depend on age, ZIP code, tobacco use and household size. For a single 40-year-old the benchmark Silver plan’s full price for 2026 runs from $414 a month in Maryland to $774 in Arkansas. What you pay depends on income. A single painter earning Arkansas’s median of $38,420 would pay about $265 a month for that plan after the tax credit. Your own household income and size decide the real number; the table above shows the benchmark in each state.

Which hospitals will your plan actually cover?

The federal median for painters is $46,060, clearing the 400% subsidy cliff in none of the 23 states measured. So a premium tax credit probably features in your answer — and that is precisely where the search usually stops. A credit lowers what you pay monthly. It does not add a single hospital to the network, and the cheapest plan after the credit is very often the narrowest one available.

That median counts employees, not the self-employed. If you are 1099 it describes people doing your job on someone else’s payroll — useful as a reference point, not as your number.

Network participation is decided per plan, not per carrier. One insurer sells a broad-network plan and a narrow one side by side in the same county, and a hospital can be contracted with the first and not the second. That makes “does this carrier cover my hospital” unanswerable. The version with an answer is whether this specific plan, in your county, this plan year includes the facilities and doctors you use. A credit makes a narrow plan feel affordable, which is how people end up subsidised into a network that leaves out the hospital they use.

It takes about ten minutes to settle. Search the plan’s own provider directory for your named physicians rather than the hospital system; check the specific campus, because a system can include one site and exclude another; then call the billing office and read them the exact plan name, since that is how the contract is written. Re-check every plan year — these are renegotiated annually.

Look up a specific hospital system → — what each one means for the plans filed in its market.

Want cheaper coverage? Want better coverage? Not happy with what you have now? Same next step for all three — tell me your ZIP and the doctors you need covered.

Check my options →

All 23 licensed states on one measure

The table above uses CMS plan-level records, which exist only for states on healthcare.gov. Six states run their own exchanges and are absent from that file. The benchmark premium — the second-lowest-cost Silver plan for a 40-year-old, weighted by county enrollment — is published on the same basis for every state, so it is the one number that compares all 23.

KFF, “Marketplace Average Benchmark Premiums,” 2026. Benchmark is the second-lowest-cost Silver plan for a 40-year-old, weighted by plan selections. State-run exchange states are marked SBE and use state rate-filing data rather than the CMS Landscape file.

Related occupations

Other physical trades and injury exposure: Paving Contractors · Personal Chefs · Pest Control Technicians · Plumbers · Residential Cleaners · Roofers