Hello,

For the last 10 years I have been living in Los Angeles, and I have had medical insurance through Blue Shield. Since I never get sick I chose a high deductible plan that only costs $76/month.

I am now moving to Clearwater Florida. I called Blue Shield who informed me that Blue Shield California and Blue Shield Florida are "different companies". They gave me two choices, 1 A "conversion policy" at $391/month (5 times the cost of $76), or 2. I can apply for a new policy at Blue Shield FL, which might approve or reject my application, since to Blue Shield Florida I am now a "new applicant".

So in summary once a person has health insurance, one is not able to ever move to another state without either 1. an increase in premium of 5 times, or 2. possibly losing ones insurance because the FL division does not recognize the CA division. This seems fraudulent and unethical to me. It seems that this state division scheme might have been done on purpose to harm consumers.

Fortunately I currently have no health conditions, but if I did, I would have to choose between losing the insurance (applicants with preexisting conditions get rejected), or not being able to move to Florida.

This is a premeditated fraud.

Is there any health insurance I can get that allows one to move to different states without penalty? Or does anyone have any other advice for this situation?