Small group now means 50 or fewer in Colorado: what a 60-person company does now

In Colorado, a small group is now a business with 50 or fewer employees. It used to be 100. The change took effect on January 1, 2026, under a state law passed in 2024 (SB24-073), and it moved every business between 51 and 100 people into a different market, with different rules for what they pay.

If you're in that range and nobody has mentioned it, that's probably because you were allowed to stay where you were for now.

What "small group" gets you

The small-group market is the one with the protections a small business tends to take for granted. Your premiums can't be based on your employees' health or your group's claims history. Every plan covers the same list of essential benefits. And from November 15 to December 15 each year, a carrier has to take your group even if you can't meet its usual enrollment rules.

The large-group market works differently. A carrier can price your plan on how much care your people used, and plans can be built more freely. For a healthy group that can mean a lower premium, and for a group with one serious illness it can mean a much higher one.

How the 50 is counted

It isn't a head count of everyone on payroll. Colorado uses the same full-time-equivalent count the federal employer rules use, so part-time hours are added up and turned into a number of full-time employees.

That matters at the edges. A business with 60 people, 20 of them working about 10 hours a week, comes out near 47 and is still a small group. A business with 48 full-time people and a few steady part-timers can land just over 50. Count before you assume either way, and ask us if you'd like a second pair of eyes on it.

The bottom end has a rule too. A business needs at least one employee who isn't an owner, an owner's spouse, or a partner to buy a small-group plan at all.

If you were already on a small-group plan

A group of 51 to 100 that was on a small-group plan before the change can keep it for up to five years. You can still change plans in that time, but the law limits the move to one metal level, say from gold to silver.

Once the group moves to a large-group plan, it can't come back to small group before those five years are up. Leaving early is a one-way door, so price both sides before you go through it.

What a 60-person company does now

If your count comes out over 50 and you weren't already on a small-group plan, you have four realistic choices:

• A fully insured large-group plan. The carrier takes the risk and prices it on your group. Expect the quote to ask for your claims history, and sometimes for health questions from your employees.
• A level-funded plan. You pay a set monthly amount, part of it sets aside money for claims, and some plans return part of what's left after a good year. It suits healthier groups, and the quote asks health questions too.
• A CHOICE arrangement (also called an ICHRA). The business gives each employee a set amount toward an individual plan they choose themselves. It has no participation rules and no health questions. How it compares with a group plan.
• No plan. That's a legal choice under Colorado law, but at this size the federal employer rules usually apply.

That last point is the expensive one. Federal law treats an employer with 50 or more full-time and full-time-equivalent employees as a large employer, and a large employer that doesn't offer its full-time people affordable coverage can owe a penalty to the IRS. Both rules count full-time equivalents, so a business that has outgrown small group has usually crossed this line as well.

Where we come in

We can run the count with you, price a small-group renewal against what a large-group or level-funded plan would cost, and lay a CHOICE arrangement beside both. If small group is still open to you, we'll tell you how long, so the move doesn't come as a surprise in year five.

Our page on group health in Colorado covers the rest of the rules. When you're ready, tell us about your business, including your full-time and part-time numbers.