The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (the “Office”) has recently released several documents summarizing health insurance products that have been accepted by the Office to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for sale in the individual health insurance marketplace, beginning January 1, 2014. Various publications estimate that health insurance premium rates will rise an average of 5 to 20 percent for small businesses and 30 to 40 percent in the individual market; however, it is important to note that the increases may partly be due to the fact that consumers will receive more benefits and that in many cases the higher costs will be offset by federal subsidies.
The new insurance products/plans available are nearly all more comprehensive than those previously available, making it difficult to do a direct comparison of rates between previously available plans and those that are set to become available. In a July 31st press release, the Office included a list of twelve insurers (to date) participating in the new marketplace. Additionally, the Office issued a document detailing the number of insurers participating on a county by county basis and a breakdown of the types of plans offered. A handful of counties have only one insurer to choose from while others have as many as nine. Some of Florida’s largest carriers, including Health First, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Humana and Cigna, are opting to participate in the new marketplace.
The July 31st press release can be found at http://www.floir.com/pressreleases/.
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