ICHRA, QSEHRA or a group plan for 5 to 20 people in Northern Colorado

For a business of 5 to 20 people, there are three common ways to help with health insurance. You can buy a group plan, you can give each employee a set amount toward an individual plan they choose (a CHOICE arrangement, still widely called an ICHRA), or, if you have fewer than 50 employees, you can do the same thing with a yearly cap through a QSEHRA.

None of them is the cheap option or the generous option by default. Which one fits comes down mostly to how old your people are, whether they want the same doctors, and how many already have coverage somewhere else.

We work with all three, so we don't have a favorite.

A group plan

The business picks a plan, or a few, from one carrier, and everyone who enrolls is on it. You decide how much of the premium to pay, within the carrier's rules.

What it does well: everyone has the same network and the same card, which makes it simple to explain and simple to use. Your premiums can't be based on your group's health. And at renewal, you change one plan instead of twenty.

Where it struggles: carriers set minimums for how many people enroll and how much you pay, and a small team can miss them when a few people have coverage through a spouse. (From November 15 to December 15 those minimums are set aside for a January 1 start. Here's how that window works.) Premiums for 2027 also rose, by an average of 10.8% in Larimer County and 11.4% in Weld under the Division of Insurance's approved rates.

A CHOICE arrangement (ICHRA)

The business sets a monthly allowance, and each employee buys an individual plan and is reimbursed up to that amount, tax-free. CMS and the Small Business Administration started calling these CHOICE arrangements on September 3, 2026. The rules didn't change with the name.

What it does well: there's no enrollment minimum, no health questions, and no limit on how much you can offer. You can set different amounts for different groups of employees, such as full-time and part-time, and the allowance can rise with age. Each employee picks a plan with the doctors they use.

Where it struggles: every employee who takes the allowance has to have an individual plan, so there's no single network and no one plan to explain. If the allowance counts as affordable for an employee, that person can't get help with the premium from Connect for Health Colorado, even if the help would have been larger. And individual-market premiums in Colorado rose by an average of 10% for 2027, so this isn't an escape from rising costs.

A QSEHRA

A QSEHRA works like a CHOICE arrangement with a ceiling. It's only for businesses with fewer than 50 employees that don't offer a group plan, the allowance has to be the same for everyone eligible (it can vary by family size and age), and the IRS sets a yearly maximum. For 2026 that's $6,450 for an employee alone and $13,100 with family.

What it does well: it's the simplest of the three to run, and the cap makes your cost predictable. It can also reimburse more than premiums, if you allow it.

Where it struggles: you can leave some people out, like part-timers, but you can't give different groups different amounts, and the cap limits what you can offer an older employee whose premium runs higher. An allowance that counts as affordable rules out help with the premium from Connect for Health Colorado, and a smaller one reduces that help.

Which fits 5 to 20 people

• Most of your people want the same doctors, or a few already rely on a particular network: a group plan usually wins.
• Your team is young, and several are on a spouse's or parent's plan: a group plan can struggle to meet the enrollment rules, and a CHOICE arrangement or QSEHRA lets the people who need coverage get it.
• You want different amounts for full-time and part-time people: a CHOICE arrangement can do that, and a QSEHRA can't.
• You want the lowest-effort setup and a fixed cost: a QSEHRA.
• Some of your people earn little enough to get a lot of help on Connect for Health Colorado: look hard at whether an allowance would cost them that help. Sometimes the kindest option is a smaller benefit that leaves the premium help in place.

The timing catch

A CHOICE arrangement or a QSEHRA needs a written notice to your employees well before the plan year starts, so a business that decides in the fall may be looking at a start later than January 1. Ask us about the dates for yours. A group plan doesn't need that lead time, and it can start January 1 if the paperwork is in during December.

Where we come in

We'll price a group plan, a CHOICE arrangement and a QSEHRA for your actual people, including what each employee would pay and whether any of them would lose premium help, and tell you which one we'd pick. Our side-by-side page has the rules in more detail.

Tell us about your business with your rough headcount, and we'll start from there.