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Healthy State tells the stories you need to know to stay well, with a special focus on Florida.We'll bring you the latest fitness trends, new research on preventing and treating disease, and information about how health policy impacts your pocketbook.We report on health using all the tools at our disposal -- video, audio, photos and text -- to bring these stories to life.Healthy State is a project of WUSF Public Media in Tampa and is heard on public radio stations throughout Florida. It also is available online at wusfnews.org.

HealthCare.gov CEO Advises FL Navigators

HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan visited Tampa on Friday.
Lottie Watts
/
WUSF
HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan visited Tampa on Friday.

Florida is once again leading in enrollment on the federal health insurance marketplace, and that success has caught the attention of HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan. 

During a visit to Tampa on Friday, Counihan met with some of Florida's Affordable Care Act navigators during a Covering Tampa Bay coalition meeting. They asked him about the affordability of plans, technical issues with the website and how to guide consumers who want to make sure they have access to certain providers.

“What I always tell consumers, and I suspect you do as well, is if they really have a critical doctor or specialist -- primary care doctor or specialist -- they should call that doctor’s office to confirm they are in that product,” Counihan said. “Not just the company, like, do you take Florida Blue? Because you guys know, it's not that simple. The doctor's office will say sure, right? But is it Florida Blue HMO X Y Z? That's what the question has to be."

Federal health officials say more than 2 million people in 38 states signed up for a plan on HealthCare.gov during the first month of open enrollment. Floridians accounted for 444,711 of those sign-ups. About two-third were returning customers.  

“If you look at the results in Florida, it’s huge,” said Counihan, who pointed to the efforts of in-person assisters as one of the factors driving strong sign-ups in in the Sunshine State.

“We know that we try to make this simple. It's not that simple. We all know that,” he said. “Health insurance is complicated to begin with, so people need people that can help explain that to them, and that's what you guys do."

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 2.8 million Floridians remain uninsured.   

Dec. 15 is the deadline to enroll in a plan for coverage that kicks in Jan. 1. Open enrollment runs through Jan. 31, 2016. 

The penalty for going without insurance in 2016 is $695 per person, or 2 percent of income, whichever is greater. 

Lottie Watts is a reporter and producer with WUSF in Tampa. Health News Florida receives support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  

Copyright 2015 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7

Lottie Watts was our Florida Matters producer from 2012 to 2016. She also covers health and health policy for WUSF's Health News Florida .
Lottie Watts
Lottie Watts covers health and health policy for Health News Florida, now a part of WUSF Public Media. She also produces Florida Matters, WUSF's weekly public affairs show.
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