In today’s MASSAGE Magazine deep dive, we’ll be breaking down how much massage insurance costs versus what you receive to really determine who has the cheapest rates around.
Breaking Down The Cheapest Massage Insurance Plans of 2024
Massage liability insurance plans can use different names for coverage options. Below is a list of the most common terms you’ll see. To help narrow down the cheapest massage insurance plans in the field, we’ll need to figure out the apples-to-apples comparisons by deciphering how different plans refer to what’s included.
- General liability insurance: a lot of plans refer to this as “slip and fall” coverage, which is a common term in the industry. General liability is coverage for accidents, injuries, and property damage that someone has inside or around your business. A massage professional might mop their floor between sessions but fail to warn the next client. In the case that they slip, fall, and injure themselves, they could file a suit to cover all of their medical bills.
- Professional liability insurance: you may see this called “errors and omissions” or “malpractice” insurance as it all pertains to the professional services provided. When someone is injured or has their property damaged while under your care, they may file a lawsuit to be compensated. An example could be leaving hot stones in the heater too long and accidentally burning the client when the stones are applied.
- Product liability insurance: this coverage applies to all the products you use during a session. Massage oils, aromatherapy, even cleaners and lotions, can cause a severe allergic reaction in some people. This coverage helps protect you if someone has an allergic reaction and then demands you pay for their medical care.
- Identity theft protection: this may also be called “cyber insurance” and pertains to the risk of having your identity compromised by an intrusion. Getting everything back in order after your data has been breached by a cyber theft can be time consuming and expensive, which is why you really want to see this coverage on a plan.
When you see all of the coverage options above at a great rate, you know you’ve got a solid policy. With Massage Magazine Insurance Plus, we include all of these coverages with superb limits attached to each, a whole suite of exclusive member benefits, and libraries of tools to use to grow your practice–all under the same low rate for a massage insurance plan.
Comparing Massage Insurance Plan Pricing Information
Now, massage insurance plans will often include what’s called a “base plan,” which may include a few of the coverages above and then tack on different fees for different coverage options, modalities, and locations. We’ll talk more about hidden fees later, but just running down a list of comparing prices, we’ve done the legwork for you here for the cheapest massage insurance plans.
Current pricing among some of the most popular and cheapest massage insurance plans out there include:
- AMTA: $235 per year for professionals, $89 for first-year graduates
- ABMP: $199 per year practitioner rate and $229 per year listed for certified professionals (note they have different hour requirements for each tier)
- Hands-On Trade: $154 per year for professionals, $75 per year for students
- Insure Bodywork: $96 per year for professionals, $67 per year for students
- Massage Magazine Insurance Plus: $16 monthly rate or $169 per year for professionals, drops to $145 per year with a two-year plan option.
You can see that pricing really is all over the place, which is the same with coverage types and limits. That’s why it's important to see the best blend. Cheap massage insurance really can be that—lacking in coverage and actual usefulness. With the best plan, you’ll want good coverage diversity, well-set limits (not too high, not too low), benefits, solid ratings, and affordability all rolled into one.
Benefits Can Add Value to Your Massage Plan
Member benefits can really pack a punch with what you receive when you sign up for massage insurance. Great insurance is vital for long-term success in the field to literally insure you’re covered for a mishap. But what happens if you never have a claim? You should definitely count your blessings and then consider what you’ve received for what you invested.
At MASSAGE Magazine, our entire reason for existence has been to support massage therapists. We’ve done this with one of the highest-rated periodicals in massage for decades and added onto that mission by offering massage insurance. We took the same mentality into massage insurance that we’ve had in supporting the profession for so many years.
There are entire libraries of expertly curated content to help build and grow your practice, free online continuing education classes, free online therapy from BetterHelp, and more than $1,800 in exclusive discounts from top names in massage products and business services. All of these benefits are things we know our members will actually use, and all work in tandem with our coverage offering to start providing value from day one.
Hidden Fees to Watch Out For
Right up front, you need to understand the advertised price of massage liability policy versus what you will actually pay. Like we mentioned above, you’ll often see what’s called a “base plan” listed with massage insurance. This is a bare bones version of the policy that will include limited coverage options, smaller limits, and less covered modalities. Want more than that? Well, you’ll have to pay a fee in most cases.
Other fees and costs to watch out for that can dramatically affect the final price include:
- Application fees
- Membership fees
- Additional modality fees
- Additional costs for your location
- Pricing based on your experience level
We thought all of these added costs were totally confusing and went a different way. Looking at our massage insurance page, you can see absolutely everything that’s included with the plan and exactly what you’ll pay. There’s never a questionnaire that’s going to change what you pay based on your location or experience level, no hidden membership fees, and full transparency from start to finish.
Look at How a Massage Insurance Plan is Set Up
A few other areas to watch for in choosing a great massage insurance plan include portability and occurrence form coverage. Portability means you can move employers or anywhere in the U.S. and your policy stays with you. Without this, you may lose coverage altogether if you ever change venues.
Occurrence form coverage is a little more complex, but basically means you can file a claim even after a policy has long expired as long as it occurred back during the policy term. There are other cheaper insurance plans that use claims-made coverage, which will only let you file if the policy is active. This can be a major bummer if a claim event occurs right at the end of your policy’s term and you don’t get a chance to file before it expires!
Bringing it Home: Who Has the Cheapest Insurance?
The cheapest massage insurance is the one that you can secure for a great rate and know exactly what you’re getting. With millions in coverage, thousands in benefits, and an entire team of like-minded professionals that all have your back, we’re confident our plan provides the best blend of affordability and coverage out there.
With how much we’ve dedicated to offering a truly useful and protective insurance plan, we’re so proud that thousands of our members have rated their experiences so highly on third-party platforms like TrustPilot.
Getting Great Coverage at an Affordable Rate
We like to make it super easy to get insured in minutes with immediate access to everything your new plan provides. Our massage insurance plans cover hundreds of modalities simultaneously, and based on comparison, our massage insurance plans run an average of 30% less than the others out there. Check everything out for yourself on our massage insurance page to learn more and get covered today.