eHealth is one of the largest private health insurance marketplaces in the United States, publicly traded on Nasdaq and operating as a licensed agency in every state. The Small Business product lets an HVAC owner enter a ZIP code and census, then compare small-group medical, dental, and vision plans from national and regional carriers side by side. Because eHealth earns standard carrier override commissions (not plan-specific bonuses paid back to its agents), the pitch is transparent: plans cost the same as going direct to the carrier, and the licensed agent has no financial reason to steer you to a specific product.
For contractors with 2 to 50 employees, this model is particularly useful when exiting an existing broker relationship or shopping a renewal. eHealth handles SHOP marketplace enrollment, employer-contribution modeling, and ACA compliance reporting. Licensed agents are available by phone and web, and the platform walks owners through census collection, plan shortlisting, carrier underwriting, and online enrollment typically within a week.
The tradeoff versus a PEO or association trust is that eHealth sells small-group ACA-regulated plans, which are community-rated in most states, so it does not deliver the large-group pooling discounts a PEO can. For an HVAC shop with a young, healthy crew in a high-cost small-group state, eHealth often produces the most transparent apples-to-apples comparison. For shops with higher-risk demographics or multi-state complexity, a PEO or association trust may price better even after PEO fees.