Start by comparing 30+ of the newest and most affordable health insurance plans in Florida. Our Orlando Health Insurance Agency offers one of the largest and most complete selections of health, life and medicare supplements on the web.  Our quoting system incorporates state of the art technology that allows you to compare rates instantly and in a side-by-side format.  Get real time quotes from the top selling “A” rated carriers like Cigna, Aetna, United HealthCare, Humana, Celtic and Assurant…to name a few.  Your information is protected by VeriSign and the strongest secure socket layer (SSL) encryption technology available for e-commerce 24/7/365.

If you’re looking for a shorter list of quotes tailored to your individual needs but also in a concise and consistent format, use our Custom Quote Contact Sheet.  It will place your information in front of us immediately, enabling us to begin researching plans from multiple carriers that fits your specific budget and medical history.  Regardless of which method you use be sure to thoroughly check your options with one of the independent Florida health insurance agents here that represent multiple health insurance carriers. 

FLORIDA HEALTH INSURANCE AND PREEXISTING CONDITIONS:

Do you have preexisting conditions and have you been declined for major medical health insurance? Individual medical insurance in Florida is different from group medical insurance in Florida because of the fact that the underwriting departments at each Florida insurance company will scrutinize very closely any pre-existing conditions that an applicant has in their health history (going back up to 10 years) if they are applying for an individual policy.

Individual Health Insurance in Florida vs. Small Group Health Insurance

Many Florida residents are quite familiar with large, or possibly small group medical insurance through their employer (in Florida a small group is considered a company or group that has fewer than 50 employees).  And if you are coming here from such a plan I am sure you feel like you just entered the twilight zone.  It is like comparing apples with oranges, as the saying goes.  Medical issues become important if you are trying to come to grips with individual medical insurance.  And of course, cost.  Prior to this, your employer was required by Department of Insurance law to cover a minimum of 50% of the cost of your health insurance. So you were only seeing a portion of what the actual cost was.  And although individual health insurance is much cheaper than group, it will strike you as quite high, especially when you consider how medical conditions can increase your cost.  So, the challenge now is to re-educate yourself in this new era of Health Care Reform as well as individual health insurance plans in Florida and the medical underwriting process.

Affordable Florida Group Health Insurance 101

Some people are shocked to learn that the cost of group, or employer based health insurance, is almost twice as high as the cost of individual medical insurance. “How can that be?”, they ask. Well unlike most situations where sellers are more willing to offer discounts to buyers of multiple units, group health insurance is an exception. Consider an example, let’s say your employer just hired a new co-worker and the spouse has cancer. By law, the employer is forced to cover all the expenses associated with the spouse’s medical condition…even though they never would be approved for an individual medical insurance policy. You as a healthy person are in a sense subsidizing the cost of your unhealthy co-worker (and all of the other unhealthy people) in paying their premiums, thus driving up the cost of everyone’s health insurance premium.

What people overlook is that in Florida, insurers are required to accept sick people along with healthy people on group plans as opposed to an individual medical plans. Thus, it only makes sense that insurers are going to charge more for coverage where they can’t screen out people with medical conditions they don’t want. Individual health insurance does not work the same way, the insurer can be picky and applications are subject to full medical underwriting, hence the rates for individual health insurance are relatively cheap.

Armed with the above info., which do you think would be more expensive – group medical insurance or individual medical insurance? If you said group medical insurance then you are on the right track to understanding the main difference between the two.

If at this point, your understanding of health insurance has been turned up-side down, RELAX! Shopping for health insurance in Florida does not have to be a long, drawn out and mind-numbing experience. Focus on a few basic principles of health insurance in Florida, do a little research and then find an affordable and comprehensive policy that fits your situation.

The key phrase here is, “affordable and comprehensive” health insurance. And, for the same reason you wouldn’t necessarily purchase the cheapest car on the lot, you should be equally wary of purchasing cheap health insurance. Obviously other factors come in to play. Look for the plan that strikes the proper balance between affordability and protection as well.

Searching For A Better Florida Individual Health Insurance Plan? Sure, who isn’t?  But just like you might not want to purchase the cheapest car on the lot, the same line of reasoning applies when purchasing cheap health insurance plan.  There are ways to bring down the high cost of insurance that don’t sacrifice your overall coverage.  Understand the basics, concepts that individual health insurance is based on and you will at least have a basis for making an informed decision.  Use the links to the right for a refresher course before you sign on the bottom line. What you don’t want to do is to limit your coverage in the hospital, or, for things like prescription drug coverage.  Its’ makes better sense to consider higher deductibles and coinsurance ratios and still have very comprehensive coverage in place.

Individual Florida Health Insurance Plans

Did you know that premiums can’t vary from one website to the next?  Premiums on each health insurance plan are approved and fixed by Florida Department of Insurance law for each company…

Major Changes due to Healthcare Reform

As a result of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) the following benefits were added to most all individual Florida Health Insurance plans with effective dates of September 23, 2010 or later:

Preventive care coverage: For adults with most individual health insurance carriers these benefits are now covered as a first dollar expense by the carrier. This means that with most plans you have no deductible, coinsurance, co-pays, or waiting periods for adult preventive care coverage(for in network care). Prior to healthcare reform most Florida health insurance carriers had limits around $300 to $500 per covered adult.

No Aggregate lifetime dollar maximum: Most Individual health insurance carriers have done away with the limitations to the lifetime maximum coverage per person. For example, before Reform most carriers had either a $3 or $5 million lifetime maximum per person. After reform, most Florida health insurance plans have an unlimited lifetime maximum per person while covered under that plan.

Prescription Drugs: Most carriers have done away with any annual dollar limit for prescriptions. Prior to healthcare reform most carriers had $3000 to $5000 annual limits per person.

Children with Preexisting conditions: children under age 19 will have no preexisting condition exclusions. This is required on a state-by-state basis, that dependent children under the age of 19 will not be declined based on medical history. Prior to healthcare reform most health insurance plans could decline a child with a preexisting condition and forcing them to take coverage through the Florida Health Insurance Risk Pool.

Dependent Children: dependent children will be allowed to stay on their parent/legal guardian plan until age 26

No matter where you look, you won’t find lower premiums than you will find here. If you do then you are not comparing the same plan or you might be using a different zip code, or getting a quote from an agent over the phone who might tell you anything. It makes your job a lot easier since you don’t have to negotiate with anyone or jump from one website to the next searching for the best deal. I live and work in Central Florida and have been selling health & life insurance just about every day for the last 15 years. Thanks for visiting and we look forward to working with you sometime in the future.