Thursday, July 27, 2006

Health Insurance in Florida

If you are looking for health insurance in Florida then be happy!

Why?

There are many options available to you from top Florida health insurance companies. Just don't fall for a pitch about a discount health plan or a plan that sounds too good to be true but plastered all over the contract are the words,

"This plan has exclusions and limitations."

(Hmm, which by the way is all over every advertisement for the new Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Blue Options plans. What? You thought that they could just magically make a way for the premiums to decrease by 50% as they advertise? You get pretty much half the plan for about half the price. Saving 50% of your premiums is great but giving up 50% of your health insurance coverage is not. But that's a topic for another day).

Compare health insurance in Florida from multiple companies offering comprehensive coverage.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Florida Discount Health Plans, Viagra, and Breast Augmentation

Are you being wooed by promises of, "Save 70% or more off of your health insurance premiums!", "No Pre-existing Conditions!", or "Go to Any Doctor You Want!"?

If so, then then you are on very shaky ground because chances are you are being offered a discount health plan (NOT health insurance). You will find discount health plans being advertised on signs with a stake in the ground at the intersection by your house, on TV at 3 in the morning, and right along side email offers for Viagra, breast augmentation, and other body part enlargement offers in your email spam folder.

If it sounds too good to be true then ... well you already know that buuut just to reinforce some of the rightful caution surrounding discount health plans just do a quick test:

Search for Discount Health Plan Warning on Google (Note all of the warnings from .Gov sites!)

Now, search for REAL Florida Health Insurance from top trustworthy Florida health insurance companies.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

More Florida Health Insurance Info

As a follow up to a previous post on some quick places to visit to do your Florida health insurance search here are some additional helpful websites:

Florida Department of Financial Services

Florida Health Insurance Consumer Guide

Florida Health Insurance Quotes

Monday, July 24, 2006

Health Insurance Quote Tampa

Compare up to 20 Tampa health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies in under 20 seconds.

Health insurance quote Tampa

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Pick the Best Florida Health Insurance Plan

How to pick the best Florida health insurance plan? For starters, do a little research. Come on, a couple hours online now could save you hundreds and quite probably thousands of dollars down the road.

Here are 3 simple places to start:

1. View US News and World Report's article on Plan Picking

2. Visit the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) website to view statistics on individual health insurance companies in the state of FL. Make sure and pull a complaint ratio report (here you will find out things like Mega Life/Midwest National has a complaint ratio of 8 times [yes 8 times] the state average in some years). NAIC website

3. Compare Florida health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies like Golden Rule/United Healthcare, Aetna, and Humana One side-by-side, apples to apples at the free health insurance quote section of RealtimeHealthquotes.com: Florida Health Insurance

Friday, July 21, 2006

Florida Self Employed Health Insurance

There are a number of different options open to you as a self employed person living in the state of Florida.

Read more about self employed health insurance

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Lowest Health Insurance Costs in the Nation?

Does Tampa have the lowest health insurance costs in the nation?

Nope, according to a news article from the Union-Tribune highlighting a report done by a national health insurance broker the city with the lowest health insurance costs is San Diego.

View the whole story on San Diego health insurance costs

Don't be too disappointed; you can still compare all of the top health insurance companies in the state of Florida and their health insurance quotes side by side: Health Insurance in Florida

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Florida Health Insurance - Hospital Costs

Florida health insurance and Florida hospital costs can be somewhat confusing in the way that they work together.

A good tool that is available from the Florida state government will allow you to view the average cost for a given medical procedure at specific Florida hospitals. Visit FloridaCompare.gov

A good tool to compare top Florida health insurance quotes instantly from top companies is available from Cardinale Financial Group. Visit Florida health insurance quotes

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Florida Health Insurance and Diabetes

According to Florida state law health insurance companies may decline an application for individual health insurance if the applicant presents a risk that the insurance company is unwilling to assume. (Note that for a group health insurance policy that is not the case and a health insurance company must accept every application - thus the much higher premium for group health insurance in Florida).

Diabetes is generally considered a risk that is uninsurable with an individual health insurance policy in Florida.

Learn more about health insurance options for diabetics.

Learn more about Florida health insurance.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Protection and Health Insurance

Health insurance is NOT an investment buuuut don't neglect to see the value that it can offer by protecting your investment accounts from being drained to pay for a medical bill. The Miami Herald offers some good advice

Protect your family and your savings by comparing quotes from top health insurance companies for Florida Health Insurance.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A Competitive Health Insurance Market

This article about the value of competition in the health insurance market just hit Google news about 4 hours ago. Make competition work for you by comparing Florida health insurance quotes from top companies like Aetna, Golden Rule/United Healthcare, and Humana.

Monday, July 10, 2006

$21,000 for a Broken Knuckle?

As if we needed any convincing that health care costs are getting out of control: $21,000 for a broken knuckle?

Make sure that you have adequate Florida health insurance so that you have protection against life's certainties.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Humana Widens Silver Sneakers Fitness Program

Humana Inc. will offer a free membership in its SilverSneakers Fitness Program to its approximately 2.6 million Medicare Prescription Drug Plan enrollees across the country. Humana has a very strong Tampa bay presence and is considered one of the "Big 3" health insurance companies in FL (along with Golden Rule/United Healthcare and Aetna). Continue reading the whole story here at the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Compare health insurance quotes from each of the "Big 3" by requesting free Florida health insurance quotes.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Health Insurance in Florida

Health insurance in Florida has become something that every Florida resident needs and yet something that very few understand. Affordable and comprehensive health insurance in Florida should not be confusing, uncertain, or difficult to obtain. However, at times this is case because the Florida health insurance market is saturated with many different insurance companies, insurance policies, and enough convoluted features to make your head spin.


RELAX! Shopping for health insurance in Florida does not have to be a long and drawn out, mind–numbing chore. Let’s take a look at a few basic principles of health insurance in Florida, do a little research and then find an affordable and comprehensive Florida health insurance policy that is just right for you and your family!


You will notice a few lines above that we are looking for “affordable and comprehensive” health insurance in Florida. So for the same reason that most people don’t purchase the cheapest possible car that they can find we are not going to be fooled into purchasing a Florida health insurance policy based solely on price. Just as you want a car that is just the right mixture of affordability and features/protection/reliability, etc. we want to find a Florida health insurance policy that has just the right mixture of affordability and features/protection/reliability as well.


First of all, let’s take a look at a few things that are NOT considered adequate health insurance in Florida. Discount health plans are not insurance! In fact, simply type into any major search engine, “Discount health plan warning” and take a look at all of the government warnings that pop up telling consumers to beware of discount health plans. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.


Also, not quite as bad as a Florida discount health plan but still far from comprehensive coverage is a Florida health insurance policy that is either an indemnity style policy or a policy that has calendar year limits. An indemnity policy is a health insurance policy that uses a method of paying out benefits based on a “predetermined, fixed rate set for the medical services provided, regardless of the actual expenses incurred.”


In other words, let’s say that you have a hospital bill that amounts to $100,000 (not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination these days) and in the fine print of your Florida indemnity health insurance policy contract it states that they will pay an indemnity benefit of $5,000 maximum for any given hospital benefit - then guess what? You are stuck with a $95,000 bill! As you can imagine the potential for abuse with an indemnity health insurance policy is enormous.


The third type of health insurance in Florida is a health insurance policy that has a calendar year limit. This is a step up from an indemnity policy but it is still far from comprehensive. A calendar year limits means exactly what it says. Rather than capping your benefit based on the procedure as in an indemnity policy a policy with a calendar year limit will only pay benefits in total for any given year up to a certain benefit amount. After you reach that level it is as if you do not have health insurance for the rest of the year.


For example, we will use the same scenario as above with you receiving a $100,000 hospital bill in the mail. If your health insurance policy has a calendar year limit of $75,000 then you are stuck with a bill of $25,000 to personally foot and your policy will not pay out any more benefits to you until January 1st of the following year. Not the kind of news that you want to receive as you are recuperating from whatever ailment placed you in the hospital in the first place (hopefully not a heart attack).


Ok, so we know now to avoid the discount health plans, the indemnity style policies, and the policies with calendar year limits. Let’s take a look at some good strong companies that offer health insurance in Florida.


The “Big 3” health insurance companies in Florida are Golden Rule/United Healthcare, Aetna, and Humana. Each of these Florida health insurance companies offer at least $3,000,000 of coverage per person with no calendar year limits and no indemnity style features. Each of these companies have a “maximum out of pocket” cost for you for any given year so that you and your family can budget for any given year and know that no matter what happens (even if hospital bills approach 6 or even 7 figures!) you will never pay more than the maximum out of pocket cost in any given year.


This maximum out of pocket cost varies between the 3 companies and depends on the plan chosen (you can compare all of the different maximum out of pocket amounts and other features from each of the Florida "Big 3" if you view instant LIVE Florida health insurance quotes).


Many of the smaller health insurance companies in Florida are forced to put indemnity style features and calendar year limits in their policies simply in order to compete with the “Big 3”. Be a discriminating health insurance shopper and utilize a Florida independent insurance agent that can work with more than one health insurance company and find you affordable and comprehensive health insurance in Florida. Request Florida health insurance quotes.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Florida Health Insurance

Florida health insurance companies are now feeling the effects of the increased price transparency that the Internet brings. Now longer is it a process of days or even weeks to obtain multiple health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies. The simplest and most efficient way to obtain health insurance in Florida is simply to make the top health insurance companies in the state (Golden Rule/United Healthcare, Aetna, and Humana) compete for your business!


If you cringe at the thought of a United Healthcare agent, an Aetna agent, and a Humana agent all clustering around you amongst a swarm of other Florida health insurance agents and trying to push their company's policy upon you then read on; for health insurance shopping on the Internet has simplified everything. There are numerous Florida health insurance websites that offer Florida health insurance quotes but there are quite a few very important distinctions between the different types.


There are two main types of websites that offer Florida health insurance quotes to Florida health insurance shoppers: Marketing Organizations and Insurance Agencies.

Marketing Organizations do not sell insurance, are not regulated by any insurance department, and generally have no knowledge whatsoever concerning Florida health insurance. However, they can offer consumers a somewhat appealing service. How can they assist in purchasing health insurance?


They act as a middleman between Florida health insurance shoppers and Florida health insurance agents. When Mrs. Smith in Tampa, FL requests a health insurance quote the marketing company sells her information as a lead to 5 or more Florida insurance agents.

Ignoring the privacy issues and the issue of the qualifications of the health insurance agents that will be purchasing your information there is the larger and more practical issue of do you really want to have 5+ insurance agents aggressively seeking your business?


Imagine that each health insurance agent is taught in their sales training to call you at least 5 times and email you at least 3 times before "giving up" on you as an insurance prospect: that means that you have received 25 phone calls and 15 emails from various insurance agents!


The second type of website that offers Florida health insurance quotes is the website that is run by an insurance agency like us (note that it is very important to find only an independent Florida insurance agency: meaning an agency that is not tied to working with only one health insurance company but can show you health insurance quotes from all of the top Florida health insurance companies [we can!]. This is also why we will ignore the quasi third group of websites that offer Florida health insurance quotes: the health insurance carrier websites themselves. These can be a good service but very time consuming. There is a better way to shop for Florida health insurance. Read on -).


Most independent insurance agency websites offer a feature that will allow you to request Florida health insurance quotes. However, there is a much better way to shop for Florida health insurance! Rather than waiting for your request for health insurance quotes to be filled; our website offers instant and LIVE health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies!


With instant LIVE Florida health insurance quotes you have the best of both worlds: you receive the benefits of competitive pricing by viewing the top Florida health insurance companies quotes side by side (the strong point of the marketing organization website model) as well as personal, expert help (the strong point of the insurance agency website model). Not to mention the added benefit of viewing the health insurance quotes from the different health insurance companies in the same format: enabling easy side by side comparisons of benefits. This allows for a true "apples to apples" comparison.


View up to 20 LIVE Florida health insurance quotes from top Florida health insurance companies like Aetna, Humana and Golden Rule/United Healthcare all in less than 20 seconds! View Florida health insurance quotes now and take advantage of the Internet's price transparency!