Hialeah works. Its economy is built on small factories, warehouses, family businesses, and trades, staffed by one of the most heavily Cuban-American communities in the nation. Small employers here often cannot offer group health plans, so household after household turns to the individual market, and Miami-Dade has become one of the busiest ACA markets in the country as a result.
The rules here
| Max initial term (short-term) | Less than 12 months |
| Max total duration | 36 months (Fla. Stat. 627.6426) |
| Products available | ACA marketplace, short-term, extended short-term, fixed indemnity, supplemental |
| Exchange type | Federal marketplace (HealthCare.gov) |
| Medicaid expansion | No |
What's available in Hialeah
| Coverage line | Available here | Key limit | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace plans | Yes | Open enrollment or a qualifying event | ACA plans |
| Short-term medical | Yes | Initial term under 12 months | Short-term |
| Extended short-term (multi-year) | Yes | Up to 36 months total | Extended plans |
| Fixed indemnity | Yes | Pays set cash amounts, not a substitute for major medical | Fixed indemnity |
| Supplemental (accident, critical illness, dental, vision) | Yes | Pairs with other coverage | Accident · Critical illness · Dental · Vision |
Short-term and fixed indemnity plans are not ACA compliant and do not count as minimum essential coverage. They are medically underwritten and typically exclude pre-existing conditions.
What one person pays for coverage in Florida
Average monthly premiums for individual coverage. Family pricing differs; quotes are individual.
| Coverage type | Monthly premium (individual) | What that number is |
|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace (before subsidy) | $806 avg. | State average, before tax credits (CMS Marketplace OEP, 2026).1 |
| ACA marketplace (after average subsidy) | $62 after credit | State average, after the average tax credit, among subsidized enrollees (CMS Marketplace OEP, 2026).1 |
| Employer coverage (single / family) | $751 / $2067 single / family | State average total monthly premium, single / family; employee pays about $148/mo toward single coverage (MEPS-IC, 2024).2 |
| Medicaid | $0 or nominal for those who qualify | Program design, not an average; eligibility is income-based5 |
| Fixed indemnity | $211.93 mean | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Florida with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Accident | sec-39.04 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Florida with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Critical Illness | sec-34.44 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Florida with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Dental | $46.00 mean | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Florida with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
Hialeah runs on self-employment: mechanics, seamstresses, drivers, shop owners. For them, the individual marketplace benchmark above is the before-subsidy anchor. Subsidy eligibility depends on household income and size for the year, no estimate is a guarantee, and a licensed agent, in English or Spanish, can confirm the real number.
Averages from federal data and our own client base, not quotes. Your price depends on your age, household, income, and plan choice.
Hialeah at a glance
Hialeah sits in the industrial heart of Miami-Dade County, among the largest cities in Florida and one of the most heavily Spanish-speaking cities in the United States. Its dense fabric of small manufacturers and family businesses means group coverage is scarce, and subsidized marketplace plans carry an outsized share of the city's working families.
| Population | County | Metro |
|---|---|---|
| ~223,000 | Miami-Dade (FIPS 12086) | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach |
Three Hialeah situations
Yusniel, 42, owns a small auto body shop. Four employees, no group plan; the margins will not carry one. He and his wife buy a subsidized marketplace plan for the household, and he tells his employees to run their own subsidy numbers, because each household qualifies separately and most of his crew qualifies for real help.
Caridad, 60, cleans offices on a 1099 basis. Her diabetes makes underwritten products a dead end, since short-term plans typically exclude pre-existing conditions. A marketplace plan covers her care without exclusions, and at her income the subsidy is likely to do most of the lifting on premium.
Danilo, 24, delivery driver saving to open a cafeteria. Healthy and cash-tight, he compares a subsidized bronze plan against a short-term policy. If his projected income lands where he thinks, the subsidized plan probably wins on both price and protection, but the comparison is worth twenty minutes with an agent before he decides.
How Florida's rules work
Florida sets its short-term rules by statute: Fla. Stat. 627.6426 allows an initial term under 12 months and up to 36 months of total duration with renewals. That state law controls regardless of federal policy shifts, and the 2024 federal restriction is currently not being enforced per the August 7, 2025 tri-agency statement.
The harder edge in Hialeah is Florida's decision not to expand Medicaid. Working adults below the federal poverty level without dependent children can fall into the coverage gap, qualifying for neither Medicaid nor subsidies. In a city of variable cash incomes, the projection you file matters enormously: marketplace subsidies follow expected annual income, and an honest, well-documented estimate can be the difference between covered and stuck. Enrollment runs through HealthCare.gov, November 1 to January 15, and Miami-Dade's enrollment infrastructure, including Spanish-language help, is among the deepest anywhere.
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Keep reading — more Florida guides
Premium data methodology. 1 Marketplace premium averages reflect the average monthly premium before advance premium tax credits, the average monthly premium after advance premium tax credits among subsidized enrollees, and the percentage of enrollees receiving advance premium tax credits, for Florida, as reported in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Marketplace Open Enrollment Period Public Use Files, 2026 plan year, available at cms.gov. Figures are statewide averages across all metal tiers, ages, and household sizes; your premium will differ based on your age, household, income, county, and plan selection.
2 Employer coverage averages reflect the average total monthly premium for single and family coverage at private-sector establishments in Florida, including both employer and employee contributions, as reported in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2024 tables, available at meps.ahrq.gov. Employee contribution figure reflects the average employee share of the single-coverage premium. Employer plan costs vary by employer, plan design, and firm size.
3 Client averages are calculated from GetHealthPlans.com (MTG Insurance Agency LLC) internal book-of-business records as of July 15, 2026 and reflect the median or mean monthly premium, as labeled, among active policies providing individual coverage (one covered person) of the stated product type held by our clients residing in the stated state or, where labeled agency-wide, across all states in which we operate. Family and multi-person policies are excluded so that figures reflect what one person pays. Figures are shown only for states and products where our records include a sufficient number of active individual policies to report a meaningful average, with a minimum of ten; combinations below that threshold are not shown. Where a figure is labeled "median," half of our client policies in that group pay less and half pay more. Our client base reflects the products we sell, skews toward medically underwritten coverage, and may not represent all buyers or all plans available in a state. These figures are historical averages of premiums actually paid by our clients, are not quotes, offers, or projections, and are not statements of what any individual will pay. Individual premiums are determined by the insurer at application based on age, location, term length, benefit selections, and underwriting outcomes.
4 No federal or state agency publishes average premium data for short-term limited duration insurance or fixed indemnity insurance. Where we do not display a client-base figure for these products, it is because we do not have sufficient policy volume in that state to report a meaningful average. Short-term and fixed indemnity products are medically underwritten, are not major medical coverage, are not required to cover pre-existing conditions or essential health benefits, and do not constitute minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
5 Medicaid and CHIP are public programs, not insurance products sold by this agency. Premiums are $0 or nominal for those who qualify; eligibility is determined by your state based on income, household size, and other factors. The figure shown describes program design, not an average. Contact your state Medicaid agency or HealthCare.gov to check eligibility.