Ron DeSantis says people under 50 don’t have much use for comprehensive health insurance

Gov. Ron DeSantis^[1], now 47, says people his age and a little bit older can get by without much preventive care.

“Most people, particularly under 50, what they really need is a catastrophic plan that’s affordable, where then they can pay whatever they’re doing out of a health savings account,” DeSantis said during a fireside chat at the Hoover Institution^[2].

DeSantis was in the Navy, of course, and he and his family have access to socialized medicine through that. Since the 2012 election, DeSantis and his family have also benefited from government-subsidized health care. DeSantis served most of three terms in Congress from 2013 through much of 2018, and then was elected Governor.

But to hear him tell it, the benefits are wasted on him.

“Most people, outside of paying insurance premiums, are not paying a lot for medical on a routine basis. I know in the Navy, they told me to take something, I would do it. But other than that, I never did,” DeSantis told interviewer Condoleezza Rice^[3].

Floridians of course are very familiar with the health crisis experienced by First Lady Casey DeSantis^[4], who overcame breast cancer in recent years.

It’s unclear how the First Couple financed her recovery and whether their HSA would have handled that without the state employee health insurance plan.

The Governor’s comments come as policymakers estimate that more than a million^[5] Floridians are poised to lose coverage this year.

“Enrollment increased ~0.4M from 2024-2025 to a total market size of ~4.6M, but is on the decline and expected to drop significantly during 2026 Open Enrollment with the expiration of enhanced subsidies & Federal Rule implementation,” read a PowerPoint presented to the House Health Care Facilities & Systems Subcommittee^[6] Tuesday.

Chief Actuary Kyle Collins observed that increased “market morbidity” is creating a death spiral for the market as it was until now.

“With the subsidies expiring, members going from zero-dollar premium to a non-zero-dollar premium, what you typically see is people who need the coverage, they’re going to find that extra 20, 30 bucks. People who don’t need the coverage, they’re going to drop. And so then the average health of the remaining population is significantly worse, needing a much larger rate increase,” he explained.

Alexis Bakofsky^[7], the Deputy Commissioner of Life and Health Insurance for Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation, painted a grim picture that could see rates increase by 34.1% year over year before subsidies are factored in.

“That’s not a typical rate we’d see for this market,” she said of the hike, which could lower enrollment by “25-30%” according to estimates she had heard.

Currently, 4.7 million Floridians have Affordable Care Act individual insurance, meaning 1.4 million people could be uninsured in 2026 who had coverage this year.