St. Pete runs on small businesses: restaurants on Central Avenue, galleries, breweries, design studios. The owners usually cover everyone but themselves. Let's fix that.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, and I help people buy health insurance as a licensed broker. I'm based in Tampa, over the Howard Frankland from St. Petersburg. St. Pete is the largest city in Pinellas County, so your plan choices come from the Pinellas list.
The people I hear from in St. Pete own something small: a taco spot in the Grand Central District, a tattoo shop, a yoga studio, a two-person marketing agency. They make payroll, and then they figure out their own coverage last. I handle it by phone, as I do for clients in every one of my 36 states. For the rest of the bay, see my Tampa page.
In Pinellas, one company sells marketplace PPOs, and the price is the problem: 138% above the alternatives for a 40-year-old on silver, compared with a statewide median of 110%. Through me, you can get a private nationwide PPO instead. For a healthy owner whose family pays full price, I'd usually quote that first.
Business owners often think they need a group plan to cover themselves. Not always. An owner with a few part-time staff can buy coverage for the household and treat employee benefits as a separate decision, which my small business page covers. This page is about your own family.
Your household's price depends on the household's income, not the business's revenue. The Pinellas plan file lists 149 medical plans from 6 insurance companies, and only 14 of them are PPOs.
Picture a couple who own a 40-seat restaurant on Central Avenue. They pay themselves modestly so the place stays afloat. Their 8-year-old has asthma and sees a specialist at Johns Hopkins All Children's, the pediatric hospital right here in St. Pete.
Because the owners pay themselves little, their household income may fall in the tax credit range. If it does, a marketplace plan is usually the most affordable way to cover all four, and it's also the safer home for a child who needs regular specialist care, because plans there must accept everyone and can't charge more because of health. We'd check that the plan reaches All Children's before choosing.
Next step: Tell me what you paid yourselves last year and who your child's specialist is, and I'll find the plans that keep that doctor.
When the business pays you well, the credit may be gone, and full-price marketplace plans get expensive fast. That's where a private PPO makes sense. It's medically underwritten, so each person's health history is part of the application, and the result can be an approval, a decline, or a condition excluded. For a healthy family it often costs less and comes with a nationwide network, which matters if you travel for suppliers or trade shows.
If you'd rather use St. Anthony's, which has been in St. Pete since 1931, we check that too.
Next step: Call me for a private PPO quote and the full marketplace price for your family, side by side.
Restaurants and shops have bad years. If your household income drops below the federal poverty level, the tax credit may not help, and Florida hasn't expanded Medicaid. If you see that coming, call before you file or enroll, so we can look at what's still open to you.
Next step: If this year could be that lean, call me now and we'll plan before open enrollment.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Not necessarily. An owner can buy individual coverage for the family and look at staff benefits as a separate decision.
It depends on the plan. Check the hospital and the specialist by name in each network before you enroll. I do that check with you.
Yes. A healthy family paying full price can apply for a private PPO with a nationwide network through me. The marketplace has a PPO too, but in Pinellas it's priced far above everything else.
Nothing out of your pocket. The insurer pays me, and your premium is identical to buying without a broker.
Tell me who's in your family, what the business paid you last year, and which doctors or hospitals you use. I'll show you the plan that fits your household, not your payroll.
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