When Stephen Brocato walks into a room, he brings more than a title—he brings curiosity, connection and a clear mission: to make health coverage understandable and accessible for the people who keep our communities running. Florida Blue’s mission is to help people and communities achieve better health.
As Senior Director of Business Development for Florida Blue’s West region, Stephen oversees strategies across 14 counties. But his work is far from corporate abstraction; it is local, relational and rooted in practical and educational solutions for small-business owners, part-time workers and multicultural communities that too often fall through the cracks.
Stephen’s journey—moving between cities, building teams from the ground up, and leaning on partnerships—shapes how he approaches the challenge of health literacy. He knows that questions like “What am I buying?” and “How do I use this?” are not gaps of intelligence but symptoms of a system that can feel complex and unaffordable.
So rather than delivering answers from a silo, he builds ecosystems: cross-sector relationships with chambers, community leaders, educators and nonprofits that translate insurance into everyday language and real choices. One of the most important collaborators in that ecosystem is the Tampa Bay Latin Chamber.
The chamber is more than a networking hub; it is a bridge. It brings proximity—putting business owners, entrepreneurs and civic leaders in the same space so they can trade ideas, resources and trust. For many Hispanic-owned firms, which are often family-run and small in size, the chamber provides a welcoming platform to ask hard questions, discover partnerships and access tools that help them recruit, retain and support employees. Stephen points out that the Latin community’s culture of shared networks and mutual uplift makes the chamber an ideal partner for outreach and education.
At the heart of Stephen’s work with Florida Blue are programs designed to meet people where they are. The Working Uninsured program, built from the ground up, targets the many employees who do not have employer-sponsored coverage—particularly in sectors with gig, part-time or very small business employment. This program focuses on health literacy: clear explanations of premiums, copays, coinsurance, and the subsidy opportunities available through the ACA marketplace. It emphasizes that subsidized plans are not “step-down” options but full major medical products that can be affordable with the right information.
Complementing that effort is a multicultural initiative launched in 2021 and ongoing programs that partner with food banks and community centers to bring education to nontraditional settings.
These efforts are intentionally language-specific—offering materials and educators in Spanish, Haitian Creole and English—and culturally informed, so messaging resonates across different communities. Stephen and his partners also make sure people know how to use their benefits: where to find educational resources, how to locate our Florida Blue Centers, and when wellness and preventive services are covered. The result is practical empowerment. Small business owners learn options that might be affordable; part-time workers discover subsidy eligibility they didn’t know about; families receive explanations that remove fear and open doors to care.
Stephen frames his work the way he lives it: as a network-builder who believes the power of partnership and proximity can transform a confusing system into a community resource. Through the chamber’s welcoming connections and Florida Blue’s community-driven programs, health insurance becomes less a puzzle and more a tool—one that people can understand, trust and use.
The leadership team at the Latin Chamber are proud to participate in and launch the working uninsured program tailored ready for their members. There will be future communications, and in-person education prebuilt to support our membership when it comes to Health Literacy and solutions for our small business owners and part-time workers.
If you would like to learn more, please reach out to the Latin Chambers designated educator and Kathy Blanco at Office: 813-246-5050
Cell: 407-496-8683 and KathyBlanco@BlancoAgencies.com
Written by:
Paula Sofia Gómez | MBA, PMP, CSM, Certified in Cybersecurity by (ISC²)
cybersmart.newsletter@gmail.com
Information Security Analyst, IAM, GRC | St. Petersburg College
Secretary + Chair of Innovation & Marketing Committee | TBLC
Blog Contributor | DEAL Magazine, CyberSmart Newsletter SubStack
