Florida Health Insurance Quotes

To maintain an affordable health insurance in Florida, consumers should regularly compare Florida health insurance quotes and find the best health plan, rates, and insurance company for their medical insurance needs.

It is essential to have a balance between a health insurance coverage options, co-pay, deductible, and your health insurance premium. Co-pay is the amount a patient pays to see the doctor – regardless of what tests, procedures, or blood work is done. For example, if a doctor visit costs $200 for running blood tests and your co-pay is $10, you are liable for $10. A deductible is the minimum amount of out-of-pocket expenses you will incur before your health insurance coverage kicks in and starts to pay for a certain percentage of expenses.

Individual Florida Health Insurance

It is a common misconception in most states that group health insurance is cheaper than private individual health insurance. In fact, just the opposite is true. Because health insurance providers are able to scrutinize through a medical questionnaire and exam, and deny high risk applicants, individual health insurance is cheaper than group medical insurance (unless a patient is eligible for a Florida HIPAA health insurance plan).

Furthermore, health insurers in FL are forbidden by law to drop any policy-holder if he/she is willing to renew, assuming all premiums are paid and the original application filed (medical history and examination) contains no fraud. Simply stated, your health insurance policy may not be revoked without your consent.

However, prior to being accepted for coverage, Florida insurers are permitted to deny coverage based on current state of health, age, and pre-existing conditions. These issues will likely be the basis for health insurance companies raising your premiums on an existing policy too.

When switching to a new medical insurance company, insurers are able to exempt pre-existing conditions from your medical coverage. This exemption, which can be indefinite, permits the health insurance company to reject any health insurance claims developing from an exempt illness. A pre-existing condition is defined as a health issue a patient has already been diagnosed with or received treatment for, within the last two years. The positive is that any elapsed exemption period on a previous policy may carry over to a new policy, assuming you stay with the same medical insurance company.

However, Florida does have on exception to this rule – cases involving a patient finishing breast cancer treatment at least two years before a patient’s application for new health insurance, make it illegal for health insurance companies to deny a patient medical coverage.

Self Employed and Business Health Insurance

A different set of laws apply to self employed, group, and business health insurance plans. Health insurance companies offering policies to small businesses or groups in Florida are required to sell all such businesses equal opportunity and access to health plans offered to other groups or businesses. Unfortunately, health insurance companies are allowed to require minimum-participation amongst the businesses’ employees for the health plan to stay in effect, meaning the entire company’s coverage can be dropped if too few people participate.

Similarly to individual health insurance in Florida, an employee’s or group’s medical coverage can not be denied, while the policy is in good standing, due to widespread disease or illness amongst the company’s participants. Nonetheless, this does not prevent health insurance companies from charging different health plan rates and premiums based on your age, gender, and familial status (though not based on present health).

Florida laws have also taken into account employees who may have lost their group insurance coverage. If a Florida resident has been insured for at least three months on a group insurance plan, Florida health insurance companies are obligated to offer residents the option to purchase a conversion policy, with at least two policies to choose from. Medical insurance companies are also unable to impose new exemptions for pre-existing conditions, with the exception that the insurer may enforce an exclusion clause and time period from a previous policy that has not been reached.

Lastly, Florida health insurance laws also require all health plans to cover certain minimum medical services, such as breast cancer screenings, diabetes-related care, maternity care, vaccination for children, and mental and physical health parity (meaning health insurance plans must provide the same coverage and deductible limits for mental and physical health conditions).

Florida Health Insurance Quotes

It is because of these complex laws that most small businesses decide to purchase a cheaper private individual health plan, which is also largely tax-deductible for businesses. To find affordable health insurance, consumers should compare health insurance quotes from the best health insurance companies. Just enter your zip code, or look below, and TheHealthInsuranceQuotes.com provides affordable health insurance in Florida.