I'm based in Tampa and I help people all over Tampa Bay who pay for their own health insurance: the self-employed, small-business owners, families, and anyone coming off a job plan. Private PPO or marketplace, I'll tell you which one fits.
Office: 5701 E Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL 33610 · Find me on Google Maps
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. I'm a licensed health insurance broker, and Tampa is home. My office is in the Netpark building on East Hillsborough Avenue, and I serve all of Tampa Bay: Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee, Sarasota, Hernando and Citrus counties, plus more of Central and Southwest Florida.
Most of what I do happens over the phone, which is also how I help people in the 36 states I'm licensed in. If you live here, you also get a broker who works the Florida market every day.
The people I help pay for their own coverage. You might run a business in Brandon or Riverview, drive for a living out of Plant City, sell houses in Wesley Chapel, consult from a home office in St. Petersburg or Clearwater, or have just left a job downtown and need something before the old plan ends.
A lot of people in Tampa Bay assume a PPO is out of reach because the one on the Florida marketplace costs so much. It doesn't have to be. Through me, a private nationwide PPO is available here, and for a healthy person paying full price it is often the option worth pricing first. If you'd rather see doctors in Tampa and keep coverage when you travel, that is exactly what it's built for.
Three things shape almost every Tampa conversation I have right now.
First, prices went up hard. For 2026, the state's Office of Insurance Regulation approved individual-plan rates that rose 34.1% on average, weighted by enrollment and counted before subsidies. A household with a tax credit is shielded from much of that. A household paying full price is not.
Second, Florida does have a marketplace PPO, sold through HealthCare.gov. Compare it with the other plans in your own county, though, and it typically costs about twice as much: a median of 110% more than the least expensive alternative. Most people look at that number once and move on.
Third, Florida has not expanded Medicaid. The marketplace tax credit generally starts at the federal poverty level, so a household that falls below that line in a slow year can end up with very little help from either side.
Which of those matters for you depends on your income and your health. Find your situation below.
If what your household earns lands inside the credit range, a HealthCare.gov plan is usually the most affordable coverage you can get in Tampa Bay. The credit only applies to marketplace plans, so a private plan can't compete with it.
Most of the lower-priced plans here use HMO or EPO networks built around local doctors and hospitals. That works well if your care is mostly in Tampa Bay. The thing to get right is your income estimate, because the credit is settled on your tax return.
Next step: Book a call and we'll work out an income figure that holds up at tax time, then pick a plan with your doctors in it.
This is where Tampa's 2026 price jump stings most, and where a private PPO earns a look. These plans are medically underwritten, so your health history is part of the application, and it can lead to an approval, a decline, or an approval with one condition excluded. In exchange, a healthy applicant can often pay less than the full marketplace price, with a nationwide network on top.
We read each plan's own list of benefits before you choose, and if your family's doctors are here in Tampa Bay we check those too.
Next step: Call me for a side-by-side: a private PPO quote and the full marketplace price for your household in your county.
Ongoing treatment changes the math. With a chronic condition, a regular specialist or a prescription you depend on, Florida's marketplace is the safer place to be, full price or not, because a plan sold there must enroll you regardless of your history and can't price you higher for it. A private plan makes neither promise.
From there, the work is matching a Florida plan to the doctors and pharmacy you already use around Tampa Bay.
Next step: Tell me who your doctors are and what you take, and I'll narrow the plans in your county to the ones that include them.
Leaving an employer in Tampa usually means the plan ends with the job, and COBRA can cost more than people expect. Losing job-based coverage opens a special enrollment window, generally 60 days, to buy a marketplace plan outside open enrollment. A private PPO doesn't wait for a window, but it does need time to approve you before it starts.
The right move depends on what your first months on your own will look like for income. We figure that out, then line up a start date so there's no gap.
Next step: Call me as soon as you know your last day, and we'll have new coverage ready to start the day the old one ends.
You call or book a time. I ask a handful of questions about your household, your income, and the doctors you want to keep. Then I tell you which direction makes sense and show you the numbers.
There's no fee. The insurance company pays me when you enroll, and your premium doesn't change because a broker is involved. After you enroll, I'm still your contact when something needs sorting out.
A page for each county and community I cover most, with that area's plan count and hospitals.
Each one walks through how people in that work are saving money on their health insurance in Florida this year.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
My office is at 5701 E Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL 33610, in the Netpark building. Most of my work happens by phone, so you never need to come in to get covered.
All of Tampa Bay, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee, Sarasota, Hernando and Citrus counties, plus the rest of Central and Southwest Florida. Outside Florida, I help people by phone in the 36 states I'm licensed in.
Yes. The Florida marketplace sells one, though it usually costs far more than other plans in the same county. Healthy people who pay full price often do better with a private nationwide PPO, which I can price for you.
Nothing. The insurance company pays me when you enroll, and the premium is the same whether you use a broker or not. You get someone local to call when you have a question.
Tell me your county, who needs coverage, and roughly what the household earns. I'll tell you whether the marketplace or a private PPO makes more sense for you, and I'll price whichever one wins.
Guides by line of work and by state