Florida Health Insurance

The Florida health insurance industry could undergo some massive changes in coming months. Last month, at the end of the state's legislative session, lawmakers introduced a bill that could alter the way health care is paid for in the Sunshine state. Lawmakers and doctors insist it's a way to improve and streamline Florida health insurance, insurers beg to differ.

Some consumer groups and policy advocates claim a lack of competition is preventing affordable health insurance in Florida. Reports show that a handful of large insurers dominate the state's urban regions. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida currently holds nearly 50% of the market in the central Florida region stretching from Lakeland to Kissimmee. Groups such as Health Care for America now, who publicly support President Obama's goal of government-run health care, claim additional government intervention is needed to create more affordable health insurance in Florida.

Finding affordable health insurance these days is very hard in the light of the rising health care costs, but the case may be different in Tampa, Florida. Many people think there are many barriers to obtaining affordable health insurance, but this is not the case. By utilizing a health insurance broker you can obtain affordable health insurance in the Tampa, FL area.

The City of Winter Haven in Florida has a new health insurance coverage program that helps the residents without health insurance coverage to get prescription medications at affordable prices. The insurance programs is called Prescription Discount Card and is available only to the residents of the City of Winter Haven of FL.

Governor Charlie Crist today encouraged Floridians without health insurance benefits to learn more about the Cover Florida Health Care Access Program during a two-day public awareness campaign focused on help available to Floridians during times of economic challenge.

Florida based WellCare, responding to a letter from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will suspend marketing of, and enrollments into, its Medicare health insurance plans.

WellCare had announced last year that it would offer a national Medicare Advantage drug plan starting in 2009. The Florida health insurance provider says in its release below that the current enrolled customers will not be effected by the CMS action.

Numerous culturally-relevant initiatives spearhead the efforts of the health insurance provider in Florida as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida champions health care education and health insurance access for Florida's Hispanic community.

Some Florida residents on Monday who tried to enroll in one of the health care plans available under the state's new Cover Florida program experienced difficulties finding information about the policies on the state's Web site, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The program launched on Monday. According to the Sun-Sentinel, the state Agency for Health Care Administration, which coordinates the program, was unable to publish contact or Web site information of the six insurance companies that were contracted to offer the policies (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 1/6).

In a recent Associated Press article, Kelli Kennedy explores the role that some Medicare beneficiaries have played in the Medicare infusion therapy fraud schemes arising out of Southern Florida.

Unemployed Florida residents will be able to enroll in Cover Florida without having been uninsured for six months, as the program requires of some other beneficiaries, Florida Health News reports. The requirement that residents be uninsured for six months to qualify for the program was intended to prevent employers and individuals from dropping their health coverage to join the state-sponsored program.