Group health insurance for Fort Lauderdale employers

The local employer base

The Census Bureau's Statistics of U.S. Businesses for 2022 counts 192,943 employer firms and 2,333,976 paid employees in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area — the largest official Florida metro count in this update. 176,179 firms had fewer than 20 employees (517,732 employees), and 11,039 firms were in the official 20-to-99-employee class (404,046 employees). Those numbers include Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties as well as Broward. The metro file does not publish a Broward-only firm count in the extract used here, and it does not publish a separate under-50 total.

For a Fort Lauderdale employer, the useful reading is that you are in a large, multi-county market. Provider networks and county-level carrier filings still have to be checked for Broward, and for any other county on the roster, rather than assumed from a Miami address.

What official surveys say about cost in this metro area

MEPS-IC 2025 Table IX.A.1 reports that 39.0% of private-sector establishments in this metro area offered health insurance. Table IX.A.2 puts the average annual premium, among offering establishments, at $9,238 for single coverage and $27,246 for family coverage, with average employee contributions of $1,679 and $7,845. Those family figures are higher than the averages published for the Tampa and Orlando metros in the same table.

Table IX.B.2 reports, at firms with fewer than 50 employees in this metro area, average annual premiums of $9,135 (single) and $21,942 (family), with an average family employee contribution of $6,217. At firms with 50 or more employees, the averages were $9,255 and $28,465. The under-50 offer rate in Table IX.B.1 was 26.3%. Statewide under-50 Florida averages were $9,742 (single) and $24,957 (family). See the cost page.

Florida's small-group rule, and who sells coverage

Florida's Department of Financial Services states that small-group health plans are for employers with one to 50 full-time-equivalent employees. Self-employed individuals and family-only businesses are covered through the individual market.

For policies effective on or after January 1, 2026, the Florida Department of Financial Services Small Group Market Carrier List names the marketers that advised the Office of Insurance Regulation they are offering ACA small-group plans. The indemnity/PPO list is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida d/b/a Florida Blue, National Health Insurance Company, and UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company. The HMO list is Av-Med, Inc.; BeHealthy Florida, Inc. (TruLi for Health); Capital Health Plan, Inc.; Florida Health Care Plan, Inc.; Health Options, Inc. d/b/a Florida Blue; Neighborhood Health Partnership, Inc.; and UnitedHealthcare of Florida, Inc. County-level on- and off-SHOP availability is on the Florida OIR tables. Some of those HMO names are regional. We will only compare products the OIR tables show as available for the counties where your people work. Pages on Florida Blue, UnitedHealthcare, and AvMed describe products; they are not a statement that Ares is appointed with every carrier or that any carrier endorses the firm.

Continuation when someone leaves the plan

Federal COBRA generally applies to employers with 20 or more employees. For many smaller Florida groups, section 627.6692, Florida Statutes — the Florida Health Insurance Coverage Continuation Act — provides continuation when federal COBRA is not available. The statute's basic continuation period is 18 months after the date coverage would otherwise have ended because of a qualifying event, with a disability extension described in the same section. See COBRA for employers.

How we help a Fort Lauderdale employer