Buying An Individual Health Insurance Plan In Florida

Florida, like most states, provides limited guarantees to people who want to purchase individual health insurance and, while your ability to purchase medical insurance will depend to a certain degree upon your current state of health, there are certain circumstances where health insurers in Florida are compelled to offer to insure you.

Usually, health insurance companies are allowed to ask questions about your medical history and to refuse to cover you if you are currently suffering from a medical problem or have an 'unacceptable' medical history. However, more commonly, insurance companies will provide you with cover, though they will either exclude specific conditions from your insurance plan or increase your premium and allow cover for these conditions. In Florida however an exception to the rule applies in the case of a history of breast cancer where you have had a course of breast cancer treatment a minimum of two years prior to your current application for insurance. In cases where this applies insurance companies are not allowed to refuse to insure you.

As long as you have been covered by group insurance for at least three months and subsequently lose your cover then, within Florida, you have the right to purchase a conversion policy and an insurer are required to offer you the choice of a minimum of two plans. Also, companies must not require a new exclusion for pre-existing conditions. However, they may enforce such an exclusion when you have not reached the end of any previous qualifying period.

If you are not able to meet the qualifications for a conversion plan but are nevertheless HIPAA eligible then once again an insurer must not refuse to insure you and must once again offer you a choice of a minimum of two plans. HIPAA eligibility means that have had a minimum of 18 months of creditable continuous coverage (the final day of which has to have been under a group insurance policy) and have used up any COBRA or continuation coverage for which you were eligible. Furthermore, you cannot presently have any health insurance (or your current group cover must be about to expire) and cannot be eligible for a further group insurance policy or for Medicare or Medicaid. Finally, an application for cover on the basis of HIPAA eligibility needs to be submitted within 63 days of losing your prior coverage.

In cases where an insurer or HMO is no longer able to give you cover, because they have for instance ceased trading or you have moved out of their service area, then other insurance companies must offer you health insurance coverage regardless of your state of health.

Newborn children, adopted children and children who are placed for adoption must be covered under a parent's individual health insurance policy for 31 day from the date of birth, adoption or placement.

Under Florida law a child who is disabled is to remain covered when dependent coverage has been in issue beyond the age at which such cover would normally be terminated, provided the child is not able to support himself or herself as a result of mental or physicall disability and is dependent upon the planholder for support.

In Florida the cover provided by an individual health insurance policy will depend to a large degree upon the policy which is bought but Florida law requires that all plans cover a number of benefits such as mammograms, diabetes treatment and childhood immunizations. The full list of mandatory benefits is updated every so often and an up-to-date list is available from the Florida Department of Financial Services.

MedicalHealthInsuranceToday.com provides information on low cost health care insurance and on buying an individual health insurance policy in Florida