Plus, Florida’s health plan bargains
Florida cancer rates are rising among people in their 20’s and 30’s, mirroring a growing national trend, and the federal heathcare insurance marketplace opens among news that Florida private plans have among the lowest rates in the nation. It’s all in this week’s Healthcare Digest.
Source: Florida Cancer Connect Collaborative
Young Cancers: The State of Cancer report initially released by the state health department in May shows that rates of all cancers have jumped 15% among people in their 20’s and 30’s between 2010 and 2020. That’s three times faster than the national average. Rates rose faster in women than men with patients being diagnosed at later stages when their disease was more advanced and harder to treat. It mirrors a trend being seen across the US. While doctors are not sure of the cause, researchers suggest modern diets, antibiotics, and fungal infections may be factors. They cannot explain Florida’s rapid increase though. The report was produced by the recently created Florida Cancer Connect Collaborative, a team of medical researchers tasked with helping identify and close gaps between data, research findings, and cancer care innovation.
Florida’s Health Plan Bargains: This past Wednesday, November 1 marked the first day of the 45-day open enrollment period in the federal healthcare insurance marketplace (Obamacare). There are 14 qualified health plans in Florida offering marketplace coverage in 2024, which is one less plan than 2023. This year, 3.2 million Floridians have a marketplace plan, the largest of any state and 20% of the total 16.35 million Americans on an Obamacare plan.
More than half of Florida’s population receives health insurance from private health plans whether directly through an employer or directly purchased through an insurance company. Those prices for services are negotiated between providers such as doctors and hospitals and the insurance companies, rather than set administratively, such as through Medicare. The system lacked price and coverage transparency until the recent implementation of Hospital Price Transparency and Transparency in Coverage (TiC) rules.
The JAMA Health Forum has taken a look at the TiC data and its findings show Florida has some of the lowest rates for office visits and medical procedures in the nation. For example:
- Citrus, Pinellas and Sarasota counties had the lowest rates for office visits and medical procedures in Tampa Bay, with prices between $71 and $75.
- Prices for established patient office visits in Pasco, Hernando, Polk and Manatee counties were a bit higher, ranging from about $75 to $80.
- Hillsborough County had the highest rate for an office visit in Tampa Bay at around $85 to $89. That figure is still lower than scores of other counties across the U.S., where prices range from $90 to over $500.
About 11.2% of Florida’s 22.5 million residents have no health insurance, the fifth-largest uninsured population in the nation.
