What changed for Colorado health insurance shoppers in 2027

If you've bought your own health insurance through Connect for Health Colorado in the last few years, you got used to unusually generous federal help with the premium.

That's ended. The enhanced federal premium tax credits, introduced during the pandemic and extended through 2025, expired at the end of that year and weren't renewed. So for 2027 coverage the original rule is back: federal premium tax credits stop at 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, and above that line there's no federal help at all.

That's the discouraging half of the story.

The half national coverage skips

Colorado didn't simply absorb the change. The state created Colorado Premium Assistance, a state-funded subsidy that stacks on top of whatever federal premium tax credit you qualify for, and it applies to households under that same 400% line who still have a premium left after the federal help.

It's applied automatically when you enroll through Connect for Health Colorado, so there's no separate application to find. And unlike the federal credit, it isn't reconciled against your tax return, which means there's nothing to repay on that portion.

Two more layers, and one of them is half the market

Silver plans are a better deal here than the sticker price suggests, for two reasons that have nothing to do with each other.

The first one is federal. Under 250% of the Federal Poverty Level, a Silver plan comes with reduced deductibles, copays and out-of-pocket maximum at no extra premium — and it only attaches to Silver, so if you buy Bronze or Gold you lose it. Under about 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, a Silver plan with that reduction applied covers more than a Gold plan does, for less money. The metal names say the opposite, and in that situation the metal names are simply wrong for you.

The second one is ours. Colorado Option plans are designed by the state rather than by the carrier, sold at Bronze, Silver and Gold by every company in every county where it sells anything at all, and primary care and mental health visits on them cost you nothing. Roughly half of everyone buying their own coverage in Colorado is in one, and most of them chose it on price without knowing what else came with it.

It isn't a one-year patch

This one matters because the "temporary state fix" framing shows up in a lot of coverage, and it leaves people assuming the help evaporates after a season.

Senate Bill 26-178 extended Colorado Premium Assistance at its current levels through the 2027 plan year. In its first year, the program reduced premiums for more than 176,000 people in this state.

The number that will scare you, and the number that matters

Full-price premiums did rise. Colorado carriers have asked to raise individual-market premiums by an average of about 11% for 2027.

It's worth reading that sentence again for the word "asked". The Division of Insurance publishes what companies request over the summer and then spends a month testing whether the request can be justified, and it says so on the same page as the headline. An average isn't a bill either — it's one number laid over every carrier's filing in every county, and yours depends on which carrier you're with and where you live.

"The sticker price went up" and "what I pay went up by the same amount" are different statements, and only the second one ever reaches your budget. For most people shopping the Colorado marketplace, that second number gets calculated after layers of help the headline never mentions.

The change nobody sent you a letter about

One more rule moved, and this one has teeth.

When you buy a marketplace plan you estimate what you'll earn during the year the plan covers, and the federal credit gets trued up against your actual income when you file. Earn less than you guessed and money comes back; earn more and you return the difference.

There used to be a ceiling on that. If your household came in under 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, the amount you could be asked to repay was capped — a few hundred dollars at the low end, no matter how far off the estimate had been. Congress removed the cap, so for coverage from 2026 onward you repay all of it, at any income, and the first tax return that works this way is the one you file in early 2027.

If your income is steady, this changes nothing for you. But if you're self-employed, or on commission, or you sold something this year, it's the reason to tell the exchange the week your number moves rather than the following April. Updating an estimate takes one phone call, and we make that call with our clients instead of waiting for them to think of it.

Colorado Premium Assistance isn't part of any of this, by the way. It isn't advanced against a tax return and it's never repaid.

If you've already decided you don't qualify

That's the expensive assumption this year. The rules changed in more than one direction at once, and the version that reached most people was only the federal half of it.

The only way to know your real number is to run it, with both layers applied, against your household and your county. That takes about ten minutes with us, and it doesn't require an email address.