Best Cheap Health Insurance in Florida 2019

If you're looking for the best health insurance plan in the state of Florida, you can find many affordable options on the Florida health insurance marketplace. Where available, Celtic Insurance/Ambetter typically offers the cheapest health plans—though Blue Cross Blue Shield offered the best rates in the majority of the Florida and has offerings in every county. A plan that shoppers can begin looking at is the BlueOptions Silver 1410, a Silver plan that has the lowest premiums in nearly a third Florida counties. Another health plan that can be cheaper, but is limited in availability to a smaller set of counties, is the Ambetter Balanced Care 5.

Cheapest Health Insurance by Metal Tier

We compared the health insurance plans available on the Florida marketplace and identified the cheapest policy in each metal tier to help you find the best option for your chosen level of coverage. The insurers and health plans you can choose from will vary depending on the county you live in, and not all of those listed below are available in every county. We recommend using these as a starting point when assessing the benefits and out-of-pocket costs you can expect from a health plan, as compared to monthly premiums.

Aside from the level of coverage you choose, one of the most significant factors in determining health insurance rates is the age of each person insured. As you can see below, a 21-year-old will receive 22% cheaper prices for health insurance in Florida, on average, than a 40-year-old for the same metal tier plan. Whereas a 60-year-old would pay 112% higher monthly premiums.

Finding The Best Health Insurance Plans in Florida

Remember, premiums are not the only cost component when it comes to your health care. Out-of-pocket costs in the form of deductibles, copays and coinsurance are just as important to compare when you shop. The best cheap health insurance plan for you and your family will depend on your income level and expected health care needs. Households with higher expected medical costs should opt for plans with higher cost-sharing benefits, while those who expect to be relatively healthy or to need little to no routine care should look toward cheaper plans.

Average Consumers Should Start by Browsing Silver Plans

Unless you're extremely healthy or know you'll have medical expenses, we advise that you begin your shopping process by looking at the Silver metal tiered health insurance plans. These are the plans that the exchange offerings are generally benchmarked off of, and they occupy a good middle ground between premiums you are guaranteed to pay and cost-sharing responsibilities that you will incur if you have any medical expenses.

The Silver plans are also the only plans on the Florida exchange that make you eligible for cost-sharing reductions that further reduce your copays, coinsurance and deductibles if you have a household income under 250% of the federal poverty level. In such a case, these plans can actually offer more benefits than higher-priced Gold and Platinum plans but at a much lower premium.

Younger and Healthier Households can Look To Bronze and Catastrophic Plans

Bronze and Catastrophic plans will have the lowest premiums available but come at the cost of extremely high deductibles. Many of the plans in this metal tier will have their cost sharing near the maximum limits, meaning that you will first need to meet thousands of dollars of fees before the health plans benefits really start kicking in. These types of health insurance policies really only make sense if you want coverage for extremely costly emergencies and have little to no need for routine care. Catastrophic plans are only available for those individuals under the age of 30.

Short-Term Health Insurance in Florida

Florida follows the same regulations set by federal guidelines for short-term health insurance. This allows for the plans to provide coverage for up to 12 months and be renewable for up to 36 months. Furthermore, short-term plans do not need to cover the essential benefits that all marketplace Obamacare plans must cover. This includes services like maternity, hospitalization, mental health and prescription drugs.

You may want to consider purchasing short-term health insurance if you lose employer-sponsored coverage or miss open enrollment for an ACA marketplace policy. However, it is important to note that short-term plans will require medical underwriting and typically do not provide coverage for preexisting conditions.

Best Cheap Health Insurance Companies in Florida

There are currently six health insurance providers offering plans on the Florida marketplace. This is down from 10 providers that were available just two years ago, with UnitedHealthcare, Coventry, Humana and Aetna leaving the market.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the only health insurance company available in every county in Florida, and in some counties like Calhoun, it will be the only insurer available.

Cheapest Health Insurance Plan By County

As we mentioned above, Silver plans are where we advise the average consumer to begin their shopping process. To help you, we've listed the cheapest Silver health plan for each Florida county, as well as sample prices for different sized families. These premium estimates are unsubsidized and for a single individual. Depending on your income, you will likely see even lower prices once you account for the tax credits.

Average Cost of Health Insurance by Family Size in Florida

The total cost of a health insurance policy will take into account the age of each person insured. For instance, the average premium for a Silver health plan in Florida is $598 for a 40-year-old, while children age 14 and younger cost $358 for coverage. So a family of four would have $358 cheaper premiums in total than a family of five, on average, assuming two adults are on the policy. But they would pay $716 more per month for health insurance than a couple with no children.