Purchasing Individual Health Insurance Policies In Florida

Florida, like most states, grants limited guarantees to anybody who wishes to purchase individual health insurance and, whilst your capacity to purchase medical insurance will depend to a certain extent upon your current state of health, there are certain situations in which health insurance companies in Florida are compelled to offer to insure you.

Usually, health insurance companies are permitted to ask questions about your medical history and to refuse to insure you if you are suffering from a current medical problem or have a history of particular conditions. More usually however insurance companies will offer to cover you, although they will either exclude specific conditions from your cover or increase your premium and cover these conditions. In Florida however there is an exception to this rule in the case of a history of breast cancer if you have completed a course of treatment for the condition a minimum of two years prior to your current application for insurance. In cases where this applies an insurer is not permitted to deny you insurance.

When you have been covered by a group insurance plan for at least three months and later lose your cover then, within Florida, you can buy a conversion plan and an insurance company have to offer you the choice of a minimum of two policies. Additionally, companies cannot inflict a new exclusion for pre-existing conditions. However, they are allowed to enforce an exclusion clause where you have not completed any previous qualifying period.

Where you do not meet the qualifications for a conversion plan but are HIPAA eligible then once again an insurance company must not refuse to cover you and must once again offer you a choice of a minimum of two policies. To be HIPAA eligible you will need to have had a minimum of eighteen months of creditable and continuous coverage (the final day of which has to have been under a group health insurance policy) and have used up any eligible COBRA or continuation coverage. Additionally, you cannot presently have any health insurance (or be covered by a group policy that is about to expire) and cannot be eligible for a further group policy or for Medicaid or Medicare. An application for cover on the basis of HIPAA eligibility needs to be completed within 63 days of losing your previous cover.

In cases where an insurer or HMO can no longer provide cover, because they have for instance become insolvent or you have moved to a location out of their service area, then other insurance companies are required to offer to provide you with cover whatever your state of health.

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

Under Florida law a child who is disabled will continue to enjoy cover where dependent coverage has been in issue past the age when cover would normally be ended, provided the child is unable to support himself (or herself) as a consequence of mental or physicall disability and is principally dependent upon the planholder for support.

The cover offered by an individual health insurance plan in Florida will be largely dependent upon the plan that is bought but Florida law requires that all policies provide cover for specific benefits such as childhood immunizations, mammograms and diabetes treatment. The full list of mandatory benefits is updated every so often and a current list is available from the Florida Department of Financial Services.

MedicalHealthInsuranceToday.com provides information on affordable health insurance and on getting free online individual health insurance quotes for Florida