Can someone tell me the pros and cons of being a contracted employee?

Mendez covered most of the pros and cons. As for health insurance, it also depends on the type of contract worker you are. If, for example, you can join a professional association or union, you might be able to get health insurance at group rates. Another option is to join a chamber of commerce. They frequently have group health insurance plans that you can connect to. That way you're not tied to any particular company or employment office.

That reminds me of another pro and con to contract working assuming you are in the US. Taxes. As a non-employee, your earnings are not subject to withholding, so you've got to put aside money to pay the taxes and/or make quarterly payments of estimated taxes. Also, since you aren't an employee, you are not subject to FICA and Medicare tax, but you've got Self-Employment Tax (which is both the employer and employee shares of FICA and Medicare). But the good part is that only your net earnings from self-employment are taxable AND a portion of your self employment tax is deductible. Unlike an employee, if you incur expenses in generating these earnings (like driving around to visit customers/clients, or buying uniforms or tools, or membership in professional organizations, etc) you can deduct them from the self employment earnings (as an employee it is only a miscellaneous itemized deduction and it doesn't reduce FICA/Medicare at all). There's alot more to the tax issues, but it's more than can realistically be covered here.