Moving to Florida: when a move opens special enrollment

Jenna Kowalski is 31 and works for herself as a digital marketer. She runs ad campaigns and social media accounts for 6 small businesses, from a laptop. For 6 years she rented an apartment in Chicago. In April 2026 she signed a lease on a small apartment in College Park, a neighborhood in Orlando, Florida, 10 minutes from her sister. She moved in on Saturday, June 6.

In Chicago she bought her own marketplace plan, and she kept it every month from January on. Her doctors were in Chicago too. Once the boxes were unpacked, she had 2 questions. Could she buy a Florida plan in June, months after open enrollment? And how much help would she get with the cost?

Does moving to Florida open a Special Enrollment Period for a marketplace plan? Yes, if the move is permanent and there was qualifying coverage for 1 or more days in the 60 days before it. The plan is picked after the move, on a new application. Coverage starts the first of the month after picking.

Jenna is fictional, and the rules in her story come from HealthCare.gov, CMS and the IRS.

The rule in brief

A permanent move can open a Special Enrollment Period. These are the parts that applied to Jenna:

• Coverage before the move. She needed qualifying health coverage for 1 or more days in the 60 days before moving. The exceptions are people who moved from abroad or a U.S. territory, American Indians, and people who lived where no marketplace plan was available.
• A permanent move. A move only for medical treatment or a vacation doesn’t count.
• 60 days. Most Special Enrollment Periods, this one included, give 60 days to pick a plan.
• A new application. A move to another state needs a new application in the new state. Florida uses HealthCare.gov.
• After the move. The new plan is picked once the move has happened, not before.
• Coverage starts the first of the month after picking a plan.
• Proof. The marketplace may ask for documents proving the move and the coverage before it. After picking a plan, there are 30 days to send them.

Jenna’s story

The move

Jenna spent most of May packing and handing off work, and paused 2 of her clients until July. She shipped 14 boxes and drove the rest down in her own car over 2 days.

She got her keys on Saturday, June 6. That is the date the rules count from.

The clock starts

Jenna’s window opened with the move. She had 60 days from June 6 to pick a Florida plan, which took her into the first week of August.

Her Chicago plan was what made the move count. She’d had it every month of 2026, so she cleared the rule about coverage in the 60 days before the move with room to spare.

It wasn’t much use to her in Orlando, though. Her old plan’s doctors were in Chicago, 2 days’ drive away. She uses an inhaler for mild asthma and wanted a doctor near home to take over the prescription.

A new application

A move to another state needs a new application in the new state, and Florida uses HealthCare.gov. On Monday, June 8, Jenna started a new application from her kitchen table in College Park.

Estimating her income

The biggest question on the application was her household income for 2026. Jenna is single with no dependents, so her household is 1 and the income is hers.

As a freelancer, she has no pay stub to copy. HealthCare.gov asks self-employed people to include the income they expect to make from their business after expenses, and bases savings on that estimated net income.

The estimate covers the whole calendar year, January to December, including the months she worked in Chicago. Jenna went through it month by month: steady work from January to April, very little from mid-May to mid-June, and her paused clients coming back in July. Then she took off her business costs, mostly software and a new laptop.

She came to $22,000 in expected net income for 2026. That was less than she’d made the year before. The weeks off had cost her.

Why 100% matters in Florida

Florida did not expand Medicaid. In Florida, most adults with income below 100% of the poverty guideline, $15,650 for a household of 1, fall into what’s called the coverage gap: Medicaid doesn’t cover them, and their income is below the range for marketplace savings. KFF counts about 267,000 uninsured Florida adults in that gap, from 2024 data.

Jenna’s $22,000 cleared that line by a wide margin. Had she taken the whole summer off, it might not have. The number on the application still had to be her honest best guess, not a figure chosen to land on one side of a line.

Comparing her options

Her tax credit is figured from the benchmark: the second-lowest-cost Silver plan where she lives, which is now Orlando. She can use the credit on any metal level.

At about 141% of the poverty guideline, she also qualified for cost-sharing reductions, which come only with a Silver plan. With them, a Silver plan’s actuarial value goes from the standard 70% to 94%. That means the plan pays a bigger share of covered costs, through lower deductibles and copays.

She compared 3 metal levels:

• Bronze. From January 1, 2026, Bronze plans count as HSA-eligible high-deductible plans. No cost-sharing reductions.
• Silver. The only level where her cost-sharing reductions apply.
• Gold. No cost-sharing reductions.

The first thing she checked wasn’t the price. It was the network. She’d found a primary care practice on Edgewater Drive, a 5-minute walk from her apartment, and wanted it in her plan. She also wanted a hospital in Orlando in the network. She crossed off every plan that missed either one.

Picking a plan

On Thursday, June 18, 12 days after the move, Jenna picked a Silver plan whose network included the practice on Edgewater Drive. With her income under 150% of the guideline, it came with cost-sharing reductions at the 94% level.

She picked it in June, so her coverage started on Wednesday, July 1, the first of the month after.

Closing the Chicago plan

Her Chicago plan was still in force. She ended it on Tuesday, June 30, the day before her Florida plan started. That left no gap in coverage and no month of paying for 2 plans.

The paperwork

The marketplace may ask for documents proving the move and her coverage before it. If it asks, she has 30 days from picking her plan to send them, which for Jenna meant by mid-July. She kept the paperwork for both in one folder so she could answer quickly.

The first months

In July, Jenna saw a doctor at the practice on Edgewater Drive, who took over her inhaler prescription. By August her 2 paused clients were back, and a new one, a coffee roaster in Winter Park, had signed on.

That new client is something to watch. If her income for the year runs ahead of her $22,000 estimate, she has to report the change within 30 days. The credit is based on income for the whole calendar year.

The numbers

Here is Jenna’s expected contribution for 2026, step by step. The credit itself depends on the benchmark plan’s premium, which depends on her age, her ZIP code and the plans sold there, so no dollar figure for it is given here.

Household size: 1.

Estimated household income: $22,000, her expected net income from her business for 2026.

Step 1. Compare her income with the poverty guideline. For 2026 coverage, the guideline for 1 person is $15,650. $22,000 divided by $15,650 is about 1.41, so her income is about 141% of the guideline.

Step 2. Find her applicable percentage. For 2026, incomes from 133% to 150% of the guideline have an applicable percentage that rises on a sliding scale from 3.14% to 4.19%. At about 141%, Jenna’s is about 3.61%.

Step 3. Work out her expected contribution. $22,000 times 3.61% is about $794 a year. Divided by 12, that’s about $66 a month.

Step 4. Let the credit cover the rest. Jenna is expected to pay about $66 a month toward the benchmark plan, and the credit covers the rest of the benchmark’s premium. Because the credit is worked out from the benchmark, a plan that costs more than the benchmark costs her more than about $66 a month, and one that costs less costs her less.

Step 5. Check cost-sharing reductions. Her income is between 100% and 150% of the guideline, so a Silver plan comes with cost-sharing reductions at the 94% level, against 70% for a standard Silver plan. They come only with Silver.

Her lines, for a household of 1 in 2026:

• Under $15,650, or 100%: Florida’s coverage gap, with no Medicaid for most adults and no marketplace savings.
• $15,650 to $23,475, or 100% to 150%: the credit, and cost-sharing reductions at 94% with a Silver plan.
• Over 150% to 200%: cost-sharing reductions at 87%. Over 200% to 250%: 73%. Above 250%: none.
• Above $62,600, or 400%: no credit in 2026.

The credit also needs her not to be eligible for other qualifying coverage, such as Medicaid or affordable job-based coverage. As a freelancer with no job offer, Jenna has none.

What could have gone wrong

No coverage before the move. The move counts only if she had qualifying coverage for 1 or more days in the 60 days before it. If Jenna had dropped her Chicago plan in the spring to save money, the move to Orlando would not have opened a window, and she’d have waited for open enrollment. Someone moving from abroad or a U.S. territory doesn’t need that earlier coverage.

Waiting too long. Her 60 days ran from June 6 into the first week of August. A plan picked in mid-August would have been too late.

An estimate that turns out wrong. If her real income comes in higher than her estimate, she repays the extra advance credit at tax time. There is no repayment cap for tax years after 2025. If it comes in lower, she may get more back. Her estimate also sits $1,475 under 150% of the guideline. An income over $23,475 falls in the band where cost-sharing reductions are at 87%, not 94%. That is one more reason to report changes within 30 days.

Counting on the old low-income window. A monthly Special Enrollment Period for incomes at or below 150% of the guideline ended on August 25, 2025. At about 141%, Jenna would once have fit it. In 2026, her move is what opened her window.

Questions to work through

If you’re moving to Florida, these are worth answering before your 60 days run out. A licensed broker can go through them with you.

Did you have coverage in the 60 days before you moved? A single day of qualifying coverage in that period is enough. With none, a move doesn’t open a window, unless you moved from abroad or a U.S. territory or another exception applies.

What date did you move? Your 60 days count from the move. Write the date down, and pick your plan after it, not before.

Are your doctors in the new plan’s network? Your old plan’s doctors may be in your old city. Check the network in your new area before you pick.

What will you earn this year, after business expenses? Count the whole calendar year, including what you earned before the move. Be honest about the weeks you didn’t work.

Are you near a line? In Florida, 100% of the guideline is the line between the coverage gap and marketplace savings. Cost-sharing reductions change above 150% and 200% and stop above 250%. The credit stops above 400%.

When does your old plan end? Line it up with the day before your new coverage starts, so you don’t pay for 2 plans or go without.

The short version

Jenna moved from Chicago to College Park in Orlando on June 6, 2026. She’d had a marketplace plan before the move, so the move opened a 60-day Special Enrollment Period. She started a new application on HealthCare.gov and estimated $22,000 in net income for the year, about 141% of the poverty guideline. That cleared Florida’s coverage gap and set her expected contribution toward the benchmark plan at about $66 a month. On June 18 she picked a Silver plan with cost-sharing reductions at the 94% level and her new doctor in its network. Her coverage started July 1, and she ended her Chicago plan on June 30.

This is a summary of how the rules work, not legal or tax advice. HealthCare.gov, your plan’s documents and your own tax situation have the final word.