Half the market is in one
Colorado Option plans, and the comparison they make easy
Figures on this page checked . Medicare and marketplace numbers reset every year — if you are reading this long after that date, call and we will tell you what moved.
The state designs it, the carrier sells it
House Bill 21-1232 created a standardized health plan in 2021, and carriers have sold them since 2023. They are ordinary private plans from ordinary insurance companies — Colorado sets the deductible, the copays and the out-of-pocket maximum, and the company competes on everything else.
You do not have to look for them or ask for them. Every carrier has to offer them at Bronze, Silver and Gold in every county where it sells anything at all, so whatever else is thin where you live, these are there.
138,548 Coloradans bought one for this plan year, which is 50% of everyone who enrolled through Connect for Health Colorado. Most of them chose it on price and were never told what else came with it.
What costs you nothing
Not reduced. Not after the deductible. Zero, from the first visit of the year:
- Primary care visits
- Annual check-ups, health screenings and immunizations
- Mental health, behavioral health and substance use visits
- Maternity care
- certain diabetic supplies, with each carrier required to list which ones
Why the mental health line matters
If you are in weekly therapy, a zero copay is not a small benefit — it is the difference between a plan you can afford to use and one you can only afford to own. This is the most common place we find people money, and it never shows up on a premium comparison.
What this does to shopping
Comparing health plans is hard because you are holding four benefit designs in your head while somebody asks which is better. Standardize the design and that problem disappears. A Colorado Option Silver from one company has the same deductible, the same copays and the same out-of-pocket maximum as a Colorado Option Silver from any other.
Identical across every company
Set by the state. Nothing here rewards comparing, and comparing it anyway is how an afternoon disappears.
- The deductible
- Every copay and coinsurance amount
- The out-of-pocket maximum
- The services that cost you nothing
Still yours to weigh
Two questions, and you can answer both. This is the whole comparison.
- Which doctors and hospitals are in the network
- The monthly premium
- Which counties the carrier sells in
- How the company is to deal with
So for half your options, you are not comparing plans. You are comparing networks and premiums, and that is a conversation you can finish.
The premium is not the price
Every quoting screen sorts by premium, and the premium is the one number that is not the answer. What a year of coverage costs you is the premium plus what you pay when you use it, and zero copays move the second half to nothing for the visits most people make.
Which produces a result that looks wrong and is not: a plan that costs a little more each month can cost you less over the year. Whether it does depends entirely on how much care you use, so it is arithmetic rather than a rule — and it is arithmetic nobody is running for you.
Two questions settle it. How many times did you see a doctor last year, and is anyone in the household in therapy or thinking about starting? Those two answers decide the comparison and they take about ten seconds.
It also runs the other way, and we will say so when it does. If you see a doctor once a year and take nothing, the lower premium usually wins and the zero copays are a benefit you will not use.
Grove Benefit Advisors, LLC is a certified broker with Connect for Health Colorado and is not a government agency or the marketplace itself. Plan availability, networks, and pricing vary by county. Any savings figure shown here is illustrative; final eligibility for a premium tax credit is determined by Connect for Health Colorado on your application.
Questions about Colorado Option plans
Is this a government plan?
No. It is a private plan from a private insurance company — whoever sells where you live. What the state does is write the benefit design and require every carrier to offer it.
You enroll the same way you enroll in anything else, through Connect for Health Colorado, and your premium tax credit and Colorado Premium Assistance apply to it exactly as they would to any other plan on the exchange.
Is the network smaller than a regular plan’s?
It depends on the carrier, and it is the right question to ask. The state standardizes what the plan pays, not who it contracts with, so each company brings its own network to its own Colorado Option plan.
Which is exactly why the comparison comes down to network and price. Send us the names of your doctors and we will tell you which of them are in which, before you choose.
Which metal tier should I pick?
Bronze, Silver and Gold versions all exist, and the answer turns on your income before it turns on your health. Below 250% of the Federal Poverty Level a Silver plan carries reduced cost-sharing that no other tier gets, and below about 200% a reduced Silver covers more than a Gold plan while costing less.
Above those lines the usual logic returns: Bronze for a low premium and higher costs when you use it, Gold for the reverse. Run your income first. It changes the answer more than anything else does.
How do I know whether I am already in one?
The plan name says so — Colorado Option appears in it. If yours is a renewal from a previous year and you are not sure, tell us the carrier and the plan name and we will look it up.
About half the people who buy their own coverage in Colorado are in one of these, so there is a fair chance you already are and nobody has explained what it means for your copays.