More than 282,000 Coloradans enrolled in health insurance this year through the state's marketplace, Connect for Health Colorado, the state announced Thursday.
That's a nearly 20 percent increase from last year. Colorado has broken enrollment records for five years in a row, according to the marketplace.
State and federal policies have increased financial help and access to insurance, said Kevin Patterson, Connect for Health Colorado’s CEO.
“I think the enhanced premium tax credits that came through with the Inflation Reduction Act a couple of years ago have made this coverage so much more affordable. Folks are like, 'Oh, well if it's only this much, I should go ahead and get coverage,' ” Patterson said in an interview with CPR News.
“We are thrilled to see such a high volume of people on the exchange. And we're happy also that we actually are seeing fewer calls,” to its call center, he said. “So they're coming in either through brokers or on our website much more smoothly.”
The exchange was created as part of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, during the Obama Administration. Through it, people buy individual market insurance — insurance that’s not provided by an employer. Colorado’s marketplace also offers plans for small business owners and their employees.
But the ACA has long been a target of criticism by President Trump and Republicans, who have said the law was the result of government overreach and costs too much.
Enhanced ACA subsidies passed under the Biden administration cut premium payments nearly in half for millions and doubled enrollment, according to KFF, which covers health news and policy. But they're set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress extends them. Other potential challenges to the ACA ahead could include funding cuts and changes to Medicaid financing, plus legal and regulatory challenges.
The Polis administration and its Division of Insurance trumpeted the increase as in part being driven by signups for its Colorado Option. That’s an insurance plan developed by the state that private insurance companies are required to make available to consumers. It aims to offer higher-quality coverage at lower costs.
The state said nearly 133,000 people signed up for Colorado Option plans during the just-completed open enrollment period. That represents 47 percent of all selections for 2025 on Connect for Health Colorado, according to a press release from its insurance division.
“These historic numbers of enrollment in Colorado Option are an important part of our work to save Coloradans more money on health care,” said Gov. Jared Polis in the release.
Critics, like a group called Colorado’s Health Care Future, have said the program has failed to generate meaningful premium decreases for consumers, hurt competition in the state insurance marketplace and reduced consumer options for health coverage.
The state points to an analysis from Brown University that the program offers “affordable coverage while constraining premium increases that result from increased hospital and provider prices.”
Colorado Option enrollment as a share of signups through Connect for Health Colorado has ramped up, according to the state. It grew from about 14 percent of selections in its first year, 2023, to 34 percent last year and nearly half in 2025.
The state’s insurance commissioner Michael Conway credited Colorado Option premiums with being the lowest in most counties and warned changes at the federal level could reverse progress.
“Now we need Congress to act to extend the enhanced subsidies that help make insurance affordable for Coloradans. If Congress fails to do that, health insurance premiums will spike for the vast majority of Coloradans enrolled in the individual market,” said Conway, in the release.
