SESSION WATCH
Died SENATE · SESSION 2026

No. SB 1354

Small Employer Health Insurance
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SPONSOR
Garcia
FILED BY
Ileana Garcia — District 36, Republican [search donations]
EFFECTIVE
7/1/2026
DIED IN
Banking and Insurance

Filed under Insurance.

PROVIDED SUMMARY

Small Employer Health Insurance; Deleting and revising definitions; deleting provisions relating to the creation of the Florida Small Employer Health Reinsurance Program, etc.

Full bill text →

Plain English Summary

AI-GENERATED
Repeals the Florida Small Employer Health Reinsurance Program and its board.

Repeals the entire Florida Small Employer Health Reinsurance Program — the nonprofit entity itself, its 14-member governing board, and the assessment system that funded it by charging small-group health carriers.

That program let small-employer carriers offload high-cost claims once they exceeded $5,000 a year, sharing the excess risk with other insurers through mandatory assessments. Ending it removes that backstop entirely.

A separate reinsurance pool for individual, non-group health policies is still required to operate under "the board of the small employer health reinsurance program" — the very board this bill abolishes elsewhere in its own text.

Only the cross-reference to the repealed subsection is removed here, not the duty itself, leaving the individual pool answering to a board this bill no longer creates.

KEY PROVISIONS
§ 1 Repeals the Small Employer Health Reinsurance Program majors. 627.6699

AIDeletes the law creating the nonprofit reinsurance program along with its entire funding and operating structure for small-group health carriers.

“There is created a nonprofit entity to be known as the "Florida Small Employer Health Reinsurance Program."” bill text, line 60 →
§ 2 Eliminates the program's 14-member governing board majors. 627.6699

AIThe office director or a designee no longer chairs a 14-member board of carrier, agent, and employer representatives that ran the program and approved its rates.

“the board shall consist of the director of the office or his or her designee, who shall serve as the chairperson” bill text, line 64 →
§ 3 Leaves the individual reinsurance pool bound to a board it repeals majors. 627.6475

AIStrips only the citation to the repealed subsection, so s. 627.6475 still requires the individual reinsurance program to operate under the supervision and control of a board this same bill abolishes.

“operate subject to the supervision and control of the board of the small employer health reinsurance program” bill text, line 450 →
§ 4 Repeals the $5,000 claims threshold for reinsured coverage moderates. 627.6699

AIRemoves the rule letting a small-group carrier shift claims above $5,000 a year, plus a share of the next $150,000, onto the state program instead of paying them itself.

“the carrier has paid incurred claims of at least $5,000 in a calendar year for benefits covered by the program” bill text, line 189 →
TIMELINE
3/13/2026
Died in Banking and Insurance
1/22/2026
Introduced
1/16/2026
Referred to Banking and Insurance; Commerce and Tourism; Rules
1/7/2026
Filed
STATUTES IT CHANGES
s. 627.6699
+3 / −3232
s. 627.642
+2 / −2
s. 627.6475
+4 / −53
s. 627.657
+2 / −2
s. 627.66997
+2 / −2