Maintaining Florida’s Economic Success Depends on Continued Availability of Private Marketplace Health Insurance

Having a health insurance card in your wallet matters. Thanks to the federal marketplace and premium assistance, 4.7 million Floridians have that card and the access to timely healthcare it facilitates. This access to coverage means the difference between regular visits with a primary care physician and being uninsured, relying on the emergency department as your primary care doctor.

Approximately 1.5 million Floridians are at risk of losing access and becoming uninsured if Congress fails to extend the enhanced premium support, which expires at the end of this year. One million of these Floridians earn less than 200% of the federal poverty level. For a family of three, that means earning $54,000 or less a year. Without enhanced premium support, these hardworking Floridians likely can’t afford the required $1,000 a month in health insurance premiums, and because they don’t qualify for Medicaid, the tragic and unnecessary outcome is becoming uninsured.

For the moms, dads, and entrepreneurial individuals running a daycare, an independent coffee shop, an auto repair business, a mom-and-pop deli, or a local bookkeeping practice, and the hundreds of thousands of employees who work in these small businesses, the federal marketplace and the enhanced premium support are the difference between having affordable private health insurance and going without.

Until the establishment of the marketplace, insurance commissioners around the country regularly analyzed, debated, and sought policy solutions to improve the affordability of individual and small group health insurance coverage, with little success. For decades, small businesses struggled to afford health insurance coverage for their employees and keep the doors of their businesses open.

The marketplace and enhanced premium support changed that debate, making private health insurance coverage more affordable for individuals and families. Moreover, without the crushing financial burden of health insurance costs, Florida’s small businesses are attracting and retaining a workforce with reliable health insurance coverage, thereby growing their businesses and supporting a low unemployment rate and a thriving Florida economy. Today, Florida leads the nation in both the total number of marketplace enrollees and the number of small business owners with marketplace coverage.

For those opposed to the marketplace and enhanced premium support, the question is: if not this, then what? If individuals don’t qualify for Medicaid because they are working and their employer doesn’t provide health insurance, what is the alternative to marketplace coverage? For individuals and small businesses, there is no alternative to the marketplace.

We need a unified political voice in support of the marketplace and enhanced premium support that empowers millions of working Floridians in gaining access to health insurance coverage and the timely care it facilitates. Making America Healthy Again depends on timely access to primary care, mental health services, diagnostic exams, and many other health-promoting services – all of which depend on having a health insurance card.

The American dream is alive and well in Florida. Florida ranks as the second-best state for business in the country. That ranking is powered by small businesses. Our state’s business-friendly regulatory and tax environment, combined with the availability of affordable private health insurance, means entrepreneurship can flourish here. Mom-and-pop family businesses can flourish. Self-employment can flourish. Ideas and innovation can flourish.

Congress can and should continue the enhanced premium support before the end of the year. Doing so will align with pro-economic growth principles to support Florida’s families, workers, and business owners and help Florida maintain its status as the world’s 15th largest economy in the world and as a leader in Making America Healthy Again.

Mary C. Mayhew is President and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association.