Miami-Dade county in Florida has teamed up with Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance of Florida for a very unique partnership according to the article “Dade, Blue Cross offer health plan” by John Dorschner on miamiherald.com.  Currently there are around 600,000 uninsured in Miami-Dade county and leaders felt something needed to be done to fix this.

Janet Perkins with the Office of Countywide Healthcare Planning believes this is a cutting edge program for Florida health insurance and a national model.  It’s called Miami-Dade Blue and it’s a revolutionary option to offer affordable health insurance to the uninsured.  This special health insurance would cost a healthy 35 year old man around $100 which is extremely low.  This concept was first a vision of Commissioner Joe Martinez from about 5 years ago.  He said it’s been a long, hard road, but he’s truly excited and good things can come from this plan.

There are some concerns over the benefits of the program.  Some insurance brokers believe the benefits may not be as good as most popular plans which may cause a problem as policyholders file claims.  One of the major challenges was getting providers to take discounted prices.  Approximately 1,500 doctors have agreed to be included in the Miami-Dade Blue network which is a great start in the right direction.