Plan year 2027
The 2027 small group market in Northern Colorado
Figures on this page checked . Small group rates and rules reset every year — if you are reading this long after that date, call and we will tell you what moved.
Who sells small group coverage in 2027?
Anthem, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare. Those are the companies selling small group health plans in Colorado for 2027. Not every one sells in every county, so the list for your ZIP code can be shorter, and we check it before we quote.
Cigna, Denver Health, Colorado Access and Select Health sell only individual plans in Colorado. So Cigna’s exit from the individual market for 2027 doesn’t touch a group plan, whatever the headline made it sound like.
Dental, vision, life and disability are a different and much longer list. Those carriers write plans for very small companies, with or without a health plan beside them.
Source: Colorado Division of Insurance, Colorado Option Public Hearings, Small Group Market - 2027.
What changed about who counts as a small group?
Since January 1, 2026, small group in Colorado means an employer with 1 to 50 employees. Companies of 51 to 100 employees used to be small group too, and the law gave the ones already on a small group plan time to move.
- A company of 51 to 100 employees that was already on a small group plan can keep it for up to 5 years. In that time, a switch may move only one metal level above or below the current plan.
- If it leaves for a large group plan during those years, it can’t switch back to small group.
- Employees are counted as full-time employees, plus part-time hours added up for the month and divided by 120, averaged over business days in the previous calendar year. That’s the federal employer mandate’s method, so part-time hours add up.
- A sole owner, the owner’s spouse or civil-union partner, and partners in a partnership don’t count as eligible employees, so a company of owners alone can’t buy a group health plan. One employee on payroll who isn’t an owner is enough.
Source: SB24-073 §1, amending C.R.S. 10-16-102(61)(b)(II); confirmed by the Division of Insurance, July 31, 2025.
What does the Colorado Option mean for employers?
It means every small group carrier has to sell a plan Colorado designed, at bronze, silver and gold, in every county where it sells small group at all. The state sets the deductible and the copays; the carrier brings the network and sets the premium. House Bill 21-1232 created it.
For an employer the useful part is the comparison. Two Colorado Option plans at the same metal level (bronze, silver or gold) cost your employees the same at the doctor, so choosing between them comes down to which doctors are in the network and what you pay each month.
What’s the November 15 window?
From November 15 to December 15, a small business can start a group plan on January 1 without meeting the carrier’s usual rules about how many employees enroll or how much the employer pays. Federal rules (45 CFR 147.104(b)(1)(i)(B)) don’t let a carrier hold a group to those rules during that month.
Colorado sets no participation or contribution minimum of its own. Instead, each carrier sets its own minimum participation and employer contribution, applied the same way to every employer of the same size, and employees with other coverage they already had are left out when participation is counted. Across the carriers selling small group here, the enrollment rules run from no minimum at all to most of your eligible employees. A company that can’t meet them the rest of the year can still use this window.
The application has to be in by the day the window closes. Some carriers take the rest of the paperwork into late December, but the application itself can’t wait. Quotes, a decision and your employees’ enrollment all come before it, so start the conversation now rather than in December.
What else changes for employers in 2027?
Paid leave gets slightly cheaper, the federal mandate penalties go up, and one new drug benefit becomes standard. In detail:
| What | Who it applies to | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| FAMLI paid leave premium | Every Colorado employer; up to 50% of it from the employee, and employers with fewer than 10 employees send in only the employee share | 0.86% of wages (0.88% in 2026) |
| Penalty for offering no coverage | Employers with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees; per full-time employee after the first 30, a year, once any full-time employee gets a premium tax credit | $3,780 ($3,340 in 2026) |
| Penalty for coverage that isn’t affordable | The same employers; per employee who gets a tax credit instead, a year | $5,670 ($5,010 in 2026) |
Sources: Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, press release (October 6, 2026); IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-22, adjusted section 4980H(c)(1) amount for 2027; IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-22, adjusted section 4980H(b)(1) amount for 2027.
Coverage counts as affordable under the mandate when the employee’s share of single coverage stays under a set share of household income: 10.22% for plan years starting in 2027, up from 9.96% for 2026.
The QSEHRA limits, which cap what a small employer can reimburse through one, are $6,450 for single coverage and $13,100 for family in 2026. The IRS hadn’t published the 2027 limits when we checked.
One new coverage requirement arrives with 2027 plans. Small group plans in Colorado have to cover at least one non-opioid prescription drug available as an alternative to an opioid, in plans issued or renewed from January 1, 2027 (SB26-006, adding C.R.S. 10-16-145.5(2.5)(b)). It comes with every plan your carrier offers rather than being something you choose. The act makes the requirement inoperative if the Division of Insurance determines the state would have to defray its cost.
Two rules don’t change. Continuation coverage works the same way, with federal COBRA from 20 employees, and Colorado’s own continuation rule for insured plans of any size, and there is still no state requirement to offer health insurance at all.
How many small-business workers can get benefits?
Just over half. 55% of workers at private businesses with fewer than 50 workers could get medical coverage through work in March 2026, and 34% were enrolled in it, against 71% access across all private employers.
| Benefit | All private employers | Under 50 workers |
|---|---|---|
| Medical | 71% | 55% |
| Dental | 44% | 30% |
| Vision | 29% | 21% |
| Life insurance | 59% | 40% |
| Short-term disability | 44% | 30% |
| Long-term disability | 37% | 22% |
Sources: BLS, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2026, Table 2 (private industry, 1 to 49 workers); BLS, National Compensation Survey, March 2026 published tables (private industry, less than 50 workers).
KFF’s annual employer survey, which most news coverage quotes, found 59% of firms with 10 to 199 workers offering health benefits in 2025. KFF's 2025 survey excludes firms with fewer than 10 workers.
So a small business with a health plan is ahead of a lot of the companies it hires against, and one that adds dental, vision or life is further ahead still.
What this means for your renewal
Read your renewal letter against the county figure above before you accept it. A change near the average is the market; one well above it is worth a second quote, and the November 15 window is the time to get one if your company has had trouble meeting a carrier’s enrollment rules.
We’ll compare your renewal against the other carriers selling in your county, at no cost to you. How a renewal review works, or tell us about your business and one of us will call you back.
Questions employers ask about 2027
Do I have to offer health insurance if I have fewer than 50 employees?
No. The federal requirement to offer coverage, and the penalty that comes with it, starts at 50 full-time-equivalent employees. Under that line, a health plan is a choice you make to hire and keep people, not a rule you have to meet.
Colorado doesn’t add a requirement of its own. What it does add, through its paid leave program, is a payroll premium that applies whether or not you offer insurance.
Can I cover just myself and one employee?
Yes, as long as that employee isn’t an owner or an owner’s spouse. Colorado leaves owners, their spouses and partners out of who counts as an eligible employee, so a company made up only of owners can’t buy a group health plan.
One employee on payroll who isn’t an owner is enough. If only one person enrolls, the carrier will ask for wage records to show the business has employees on the books.
If it really is just you, or you and your spouse, individual coverage is the route, and that’s something we do every day.
Is there a minimum I have to pay, or a minimum number of people who have to enroll?
Not in Colorado law. The state sets neither, so each carrier sets its own, and across the carriers selling small group here the enrollment rules run from no minimum at all to most of your eligible employees.
People who decline because they’re covered somewhere else usually don’t count against you. And once a year, from November 15 to December 15, a business that can’t meet a carrier’s rules can still start a plan on January 1.
Can we change carriers in the middle of the year?
Yes. A small business can start a new group plan in any month, so you don’t have to wait for your renewal.
The cost to watch is your employees’ deductibles. They usually start over with the new plan, so a switch late in the plan year can throw away what people have already paid toward them. We’ll tell you when waiting is cheaper.