As is the case in most states, Florida gives limited guarantees to individuals who want to buy individual health insurance and, despite the fact that your capacity to buy health insurance will depend to a certain extent upon your present state of health, there are certain situations in which health insurers in Florida must offer to insure you. In general, health insurance companies are permitted to ask questions about your medical history and to refuse to insure you if you are currently suffering from a medical problem or have a history of particular conditions. More usually however insurance companies will insure you, but they will either exclude specific conditions from your plan or raise your premium and cover such conditions. In Florida however there is one exception to this rule in the case of a history of breast cancer if you have had a course of treatment for the condition a minimum of two years prior to your present request for cover. In this instance insurance companies are not permitted to refuse to insure you. If you have been covered by group insurance for at least three months and later lose that cover then, under Florida law, you can buy a conversion plan and insurers are required to offer you the choice of a minimum of two policies. In addition, companies are not allowed to require a new pre-existing condition exclusion. They may however enforce such an exclusion when you have not reached the end of any previously imposed qualifying period. When you cannot qualify for a conversion plan but are however HIPAA eligible then insurers must not deny to cover you and must offer you a choice of a minimum of two policies. To be HIPAA eligible you must have had a minimum of eighteen months of creditable and continuous coverage (the last day of which has to have been under a group insurance plan) and have used up any continuation or COBRA coverage for which you were eligible. Further, you cannot presently have health insurance (or your present group plan cover must be about to expire) and cannot be eligible for another group plan or for Medicaid or Medicare. Finally, an application for health insurance coverage on the basis of HIPAA eligibility has to be completed within 63 days of losing your prior cover. Where an insurance company or HMO can no longer offer cover, because they have for instance ceased trading or you have moved out of their service area, then other insurance companies must offer to provide you with health cover regardless of your state of health. Newborns, newly adopted children and children who are placed for adoption must automatically be covered under the terms of a parent's individual health 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 beyond the age at which such cover would generally be ended, provided the child is unable to support himself or herself as a consequence of mental or physicall disability and is essentially dependent upon the planholder for support. The cover offered by an individual health insurance plan in Florida will depend to a large degree upon the particular plan that is bought but Florida law requires that all policies give cover for specific benefits such as mammograms, childhood immunizations and diabetes treatment. The full list of mandated benefits is updated every so often and a current list may be obtained from the Florida Department of Financial Services.
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