You can still get a nationwide PPO in Florida. Here is how travel nurses who keep a Florida home are covering the breaks between contracts and staying in network out of state.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a health insurance broker in Tampa. If Florida is where you come home between assignments, this page is written for you. I'm licensed in 36 states and I work by phone, so we can sort this out from a hotel room, a short-term rental, or your own couch.
A Florida home base makes a traveler's coverage trickier than it looks. Your plan is bought for the place you live, while your work happens wherever the next contract is. And the Florida marketplace leans heavily on local networks, which is exactly the wrong shape for a nurse who leaves the state for months at a time.
The short answer to the network problem: you can still get a nationwide PPO in Florida, through me, and for a healthy nurse it's often priced sensibly.
Here's why it seems out of reach. Florida's marketplace PPO comes from a single insurer, and in 43 of the state's 67 counties it costs more than double the least expensive silver plan on another network. In Osceola County the gap reaches 191%. Few travelers choose it at that price.
The PPO worth pricing is a private plan with medical underwriting, built on a national network. Its price is set by your health, and its network goes with you from one assignment to the next.
Your household's income for the year is the dividing line. Florida residents apply through HealthCare.gov, and the credit depends on what you expect to earn across the coverage year. For a traveler, that turns on how many weeks you work and whether any of it is on a 1099, which counts net of business costs.
Full prices rose hard in Florida for 2026. The state regulator's enrollment-weighted figure puts the average approved increase on individual plans at 34.1%, before subsidies. With the credit, you're protected from much of it. Without it, you pay the new price in full.
Find your situation below.
When coverage through your agency stops with an assignment, that's a qualifying event. It opens a special enrollment period, typically 60 days, to choose a HealthCare.gov plan from your Florida address. COBRA is also on the table, but electing it and then dropping it by choice later won't create a fresh window.
Think about what kind of plan you're buying, though. 316 of the 410 marketplace plans in Florida are HMOs, set up around networks here. That's fine for a break at home. It's a poor fit if your next contract starts in another state next month, because routine care away from an HMO's network generally isn't covered.
Next step: Call me before the assignment wraps, and we'll pick coverage that suits both the break and whatever comes after it.
This is where a nationwide PPO earns its spot. Without the credit, you'd pay full Florida price for a marketplace plan whose network mostly stays home, or a lot more for the marketplace PPO.
An underwritten plan works another way. You answer health questions, and the insurer can approve you, decline you, or approve you while excluding a condition. For a healthy nurse, the price can come in below the full marketplace rate, and the network includes doctors and hospitals in other states. We'll go through each plan's benefits before you decide.
Next step: Book a call and I'll price a nationwide PPO against the Florida marketplace plans at your home address.
Some years you take months off between contracts. If your household income lands in the credit range, the credit usually makes a marketplace plan the better buy.
Watch the bottom of the range, though. Florida has not expanded Medicaid, and the premium tax credit generally starts at 100% of the federal poverty level, so a very light year can drop into a gap where neither one applies.
Next step: Send me the contract dates you've worked and the ones you expect, and we'll see where your year lands before you enroll.
Ongoing treatment changes the answer. The marketplace must take you at a price that ignores your health history, which underwritten plans don't do, so stay with the marketplace even without a credit.
For a Florida-based traveler with a condition, that often means weighing the marketplace PPO's higher price and wider network against a Florida HMO plus careful planning of refills and visits around your time at home.
Next step: Tell me your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll compare the Florida plans that cover them.
Where you live decides which marketplace plans you can buy, and Florida's are expensive at full price this year, mostly tied to local networks, and missing a Medicaid backstop for very low income. Together, those make the network choice and the income estimate unusually important for a traveler who calls Florida home.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Yes. The marketplace's own PPO is costly in most Florida counties, but if you're healthy, an underwritten plan on a national PPO network is available through me.
Emergencies, generally yes. Routine care outside an HMO or EPO network generally isn't covered, and most Florida marketplace plans are HMOs.
If the agency plan ends, you get a special enrollment period, usually 60 days, to enroll through HealthCare.gov. COBRA is the other option.
Your income may qualify you for the credit. Because Florida hasn't expanded Medicaid and the credit generally begins at the poverty level, a very low year needs planning before you apply.
Your Florida county, your contract dates, and whether anyone else needs coverage. I'll walk you through which plan fits and what it costs from your home address, and if the agency plan is the better deal, I'll tell you plainly.
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