Park City, Utah (PRWEB) August 25, 2013
Today, Zane Benefits, the number one online small business health benefits solution, published new information on Florida Health Insurance Exchange rates.
According to Zane Benefits’ website, on August 7, 2013 the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FOIR) released proposed individual health insurance plan rates and carriers for the Florida Health Insurance Exchange. The FOIR also released analysis of these plan rates in comparison to the current market.
Individual health insurance plans offered through the exchange will increase 30%-40% on average. However, most Florida residents will be eligible for health insurance premium subsidies that will cap their premium cost at 2%-9.5% of household income.
The FOIR published a “Notice of Premium Impact Template,” comparing Florida’s gross annual premium before and after the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).The report compared the projected cost of a Silver Plan to the average cost of a hypothetical standard risk plan adjusted to reflect the value of a Silver Plan.
11 insurers that will be offering insurance in Florida starting in 2014.
The document notes that “these PPACA plans are new products, with new benefits and requirements, so it is not possible to directly compare them to an existing product sold in Florida. But it is possible to provide some idea of the expected impact of changes.”
Both Kevin McCarty and the FOIR ensure that premium increases are due to the fact that the new insurance plans will offer a better quality range of health benefits. Some improvements that the Office of insurance Regulation expect to see with the new plans are:
- The requirement that health insurance coverage be offered to everyone, even if they have a preexisting medical condition
- The requirement that new benefits be offered, such as for substance abuse and mental health conditions
- The requirement that insurers charge the same health plan costs to men and women
- The limitation on how much your age can affect health plan costs
New taxes and fees
The smallest premium increase is a 7% increase from an HMO plan of Humana: $293 to $315. The largest increase is a 59% increase from a Sunshine State Health Plan: $293 to $464.
Currently many Florida insurance plans offer extremely low coverage health plans at cheap rates that only cover catastrophic events. Starting January 1, 2014 these plans will no longer be allowed, as every plan is required to cover a set of essential health benefits as defined by the federal government. In addition, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to the 7.8 million non-elderly Floridians with pre-existing medical conditions, and will be restricted on what they can charge elderly citizens for out-of-pocket expenses.
Eleven Florida insurers plan to offer 308 plans through the exchange in Florida:
Aetna Life Insurance Company
Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Florida
Cigna Health And Life Insurance Company
Coventry Health Care Of Florida
Florida Health Care Plan, Inc.
Health First Insurance Company PPO
Health Options, Inc.
Humana Medical Plan, Inc.
Molina Healthcare Of Florida, Inc.
Preferred Medical Plan
Sunshine State Health Plan Inc
Click here to read the full article.
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About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and defined contribution health care. The flagship software provides a 100% paperless administration experience to small businesses and insurance professionals that want to offer better health benefits without a traditional group health insurance plan at lower costs. For more information about ZaneHRA, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com.