FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) _ Florida Healthy Kids Corporation is warning that health insurance premiums will increase for thousands of kids starting next month.
The organization offers full-price and subsidized insurance options, depending on eligibility. They say the increases will affect the families of the nearly 36,000 children in the full-pay program. That’s 19 percent of the organization’s 185,000 enrollees.
Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Matthews said rates have increased significantly since the Affordable Care Act, and many insurance companies canceled coverage.
The organization created two new full-pay options, and the federal government has said it will allow a special enrollment period for families switching plans.
Premiums in the new plans will jump from $140 a month to either $205 or $284.
About 80 percent of Florida Healthy Kids’ children are covered in the popular government-run CHIP program, and their premiums will remain the same.
