Availability of short-term health insurance in Florida

Yes. As of 2024, there are at least five insurers offering short-term health insurance in Florida.

There are no state-specific limitations on the allowable duration of short-term health insurance in Florida, so the state defaults to the federal regulations. Florida does not consider short-term health plans to be individual health insurance, which is the same as the federal approach.¹ This is why short-term plans are exempt from the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Because Florida does not limit short-term plans, the federal government’s regulations apply in the state. So for policies issued or sold on or before Aug. 31, 2024 (before the new federal rules go into effect on September 1), insurers can offer short-term plans with initial terms of up to 364 days and the option to renew for a total duration of up to 36 months.

Insurers are allowed to cap their short-term plans at shorter durations, however, and prohibit renewal if they choose to do so.

When the Biden administration’s rule changes go into effect on Sept. 1, 2024, the total allowable duration of new short-term health plans will drop to four months, including renewals (initial terms will be capped at three months).

Short-term health insurance plans in Florida can be purchased by Floridians who can meet the underwriting guidelines used by insurers.

In general, people can qualify for short-term health plans if they’re under 65 years old and do not have a specific medical condition that will result in a declined application.² But the underwriting rules vary from one insurance company to another.

Since short-term health insurance plans typically include blanket exclusions for pre-existing conditions, they are not adequate for someone who is in need of medical care for an existing condition and seeking a policy that will cover the care required to treat that condition.

And short-term plans are not required to cover the ACA’s essential health benefits and are not considered minimum essential coverage under the ACA. It’s common to see these plans exclude coverage for maternity care, prescription drugs, and mental health care, although the healthcare benefits and limitations will vary considerably from one policy to another.²

So it’s important to carefully read all of the details before purchasing a short-term policy, to make sure that you understand the limitations of the plan.

Whether you live in Miami or in the suburbs outside Tampa, there may be times when short-term health insurance is your only realistic option for coverage. Common situations:

• You missed open enrollment for ACA-compliant individual market coverage (ie, Obamacare) or your employer’s health plan, and do not qualify for a special enrollment period.
• You’re newly employed and your employer has a waiting period before you can enroll in the group healthcare plan. (Under the ACA, employers can impose waiting periods of up to 90 days before new employees can be eligible for coverage under the group health plan.)³
• You’ll soon be enrolled in Medicare but have no other health insurance options in the meantime.
• You’ve already enrolled in an ACA-compliant plan but have to wait up to several weeks before the insurance coverage takes effect. For example, if you enroll during open enrollment (Nov. 1 – Jan. 15 in most states), your new plan won’t take effect until Jan. 1, if you enroll by Dec. 15. And if you sign up during a special enrollment period, you’ll generally have to wait until at least the start of the following month before your new plan is effective.
• You’re not eligible for Medicaid or a premium subsidy in the exchange. In that case, the full-price monthly premiums for an ACA-compliant plan might simply be too costly. (Note that the American Rescue Plan has made subsidies larger and more widely available through 2025. If you checked in the past and weren’t subsidy-eligible, be sure you check again!)

People who are ineligible for premium subsidies for ACA coverage through the Marketplace include:

• People caught in the coverage gap that exists because Florida has not accepted federal funding to expand Medicaid eligibility. (Here are some strategies for avoiding the coverage gap).

People who cannot enroll in a plan through the exchange because they are not lawfully present in the United States. (Lawfully present immigrants can enroll through the exchange and can receive premium subsidies, but people who are not lawfully present cannot do either.)

Until Oct. 2, 2018, federal regulations limited short-term health insurance plans to no more than three months in duration and prohibited renewals. From that point until Aug. 31, 2024, federal regulations allowed for much longer short-term plans unless a state imposed its own restrictions. For plans issued or sold on or after Sept. 1, 2024, new federal rules will apply, limiting initial terms to no more than three months. If the plan is renewable, total duration must be capped at no more than four months.

Before June 2019, Florida had a law that limited pre-existing condition exclusions on plans with terms longer than six months. But since then, Florida has not limited the duration of plans beyond the federal rules.¹