Affordable Florida health insurance is a necessity that many Floridians are unfortunately unable to obtain. The number of self-employed individuals is increasing rapidly. Job shortages and corporate changes are forcing many people to start their own businesses. These self-employed individuals are forced to find benefits on their own.
Many small business owners are looking for affordable Florida health insurance. Providing coverage to employees is always expensive but especially costly if you are a small business owner. Discounts on coverage are minimal when you own a small business. Large corporations receive ample discounts based on the ability to spread the risk over a greater number of people.
Reasons for Affordable Florida Health Insurance
Owning your own business offers you the opportunity to control your own destiny. With the freedom and flexibility to create your financial future comes the responsibility of providing your own health insurance coverage. As an employee of a company insurance benefits are often taken for granted as the employee only pays a portion of the cost. The employer picks up the other percentage of the expense. With self-employed individuals, the entire cost is carried on their shoulders.
Some affordable Florida self-employed health insurance companies will arrange for small business owners to pay the premium of the employees with one payment. The total amount of the insurance is taken out of the employee's salary. This is not a group plan and does not come with group discount benefits. It only makes it easier on the employees to have the premium deducted from their salaries instead of making individual payments. This option in Florida is called list bill, the employer will take the take exemption, while still being able to offer his employees with necessary coverage.
Self-Employed Occupations
There are many different types of individuals benefiting from affordable Florida self employed health insurance including counselors, architects, and physical therapists. Freelance workers and consultants make up a large portion of the self-employed sector. These individuals are usually in some kind of creative business such as writing, photography, designing, and translating.
With over eleven percent of the population without insurance, affordable Florida health insurance is in dire need. There are many types of policies to consider. Before subscribing to a plan, do some comparison of benefits, exclusions/limitations, and inclusions of the policies. Self-employed health insurance is a completely different ball game in comparison to group health insurance. With a group policy, you have the safeguard that once you are on a group plan, you must be accepted by another group plan if you change jobs. Group health insurance is also guaranteed issue. In other words, no matter what pre-existing conditions you have, acceptance is guaranteed.
Self-employed individuals are issued private or individual policies. These polices are subject to individual underwriting. Underwriting can result in denial of coverage, pre-existing condition exclusions for a longer period than group coverage, and/or rate increases. The results of the underwriting process often determine whether or not a self-employed individual can afford or even obtain health insurance. Sad to say but declinations happen every day and these self-employed individuals have to go without health insurance.
In searching for affordable Florida health insurance, make sure you are comparing policies that offer the same coverage. One important item to consider is the option to choose any doctor or hospital. Some plans only pay full benefit if you use a provider on their lists. Premiums may be considerably different from a PPO plan or a policy that allows you to choose any healthcare provider. Find a company that offers various carriers. Comparing different health insurance carriers in the marketplace with ensure that you find the most affordable plan that has the most comprehensive benefits.
Affordable Florida Health Insurance Consultants can help you!
Affordable Florida Health Insurance
Florida health insurance costs can prove to be a very real obstacle to many Florida consumers that are searching for a comprehensive and affordable Florida health insurance policy. Florida health insurance premiums can be pricey at first glance. However, when you consider that even some routine surgeries plus a week or more in a Florida hospital could cost upwards of six figures then the importance of finding a Florida health insurance policy that is both comprehensive and affordable cannot be underestimated.
The Florida health insurance market is a very competitive market. This is at once a very good thing and a very bad thing for the Florida health insurance shopper. The competitiveness of the Florida health insurance market is good for the Florida consumer because it forces the top companies to drive down their rates in an effort to maintain affordable health insurance policies as they compete against each other for your business. The negative aspect of the Florida health insurance market's competitiveness is that many insurance companies are attracted to the strong demand for health insurance in the state of Florida and not all have the sterling reputation of an Aetna, Humana, or a United Healthcare.
Without mentioning names, this strong demand for Florida health insurance will attract health insurance companies to Florida that are forced to put calendar year limits in their policies or only cover benefits up to a certain amount (an indemnity style policy) in order to try and compete with stronger, more established companies.
Just to contrast the seriousness of this, imagine that you blow out your knee as you are exercising and you have to have arthroscopic knee surgery and a week plus in the hospital brings the total bill to $100,000.
With a strong reputable Florida health insurance company with an established dependable network such as one of the Florida health insurance "Big 3" (Aetna, Humana, and United Healthcare) you will have coverage of anywhere from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 per person without any calendar year limits and without limits on benefits payable for certain procedures. That $100,000 hospital bill is whittled down to your maximum out of pocket cost of probably around $3,000 to $5,000 depending on your policies deductible and coinsurance amount.
Now imagine that you had decided years back that you wanted to go with a Florida health insurance company that you had never heard of until then and purchase a seemingly attractive indemnity policy or a policy with a calendar year limit: if the limit on the policy is for say $10,000 for that particular procedure or maybe only up to $200 a day for every day in the hospital... guess what? Once you reach that limit threshold you are stuck with the rest of the bill. It is as if you do not even have insurance once you reach the limits in the policy.
The different Florida health insurance policies can be difficult to navigate without the assistance of an expert independent insurance agent. View Florida health insurance quotes from the top companies side by side and compare them to ensure that you have both affordable and comprehensive Florida health insurance.
Both Kirsten M. Portrie & Robert Palmer are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.