DENVER – As Coloradans continue to face higher premiums and reduced coverage options under the Colorado Option, the state’s Division of Insurance (DOI) issued a press release in which they yet again attempted to frame the failing state government-controlled health insurance system as a success.

Despite this latest attempt by DOI to mislead the public about the consequences of the Colorado Option – including by deliberately conflating it with the savings being delivered by the state’s reinsurance program – the facts continue to show that the Colorado Option is not delivering on its promises of greater affordability and improved consumer choice.

In reality, premiums are going up for consumers in the 2024 plan year and Coloradans have fewer coverage choices than they did before the Colorado Option was implemented.

Here are the facts the DOI is attempting to spin as the Colorado Option fails to deliver the affordability promised by both the text of the law and the countless political promises made by the system’s proponents as they rammed it into law:

Higher Costs, Fewer Coverage Choices

• Even DOI admits that Colorado Option rates increased this plan year by 7% over 2023 rates, and this is on top of a double-digit increase in Colorado Option premiums over 2022 premium levels.
  
• The statute creating the Colorado Option promised 5% premium reductions by 2023, 10% premium reductions by 2024, and 15% premium reductions by 2025. In 2023 and 2024 the program has objectively failed to achieve the promised premium decrease or the resulting affordability.
  
• In many Colorado counties, traditional non-Colorado Option health plans remain the most affordable options. This means many Coloradans spent more money to buy a Colorado Option plan, not less. 
  
• Since the Colorado Option was implemented, four health insurance providers have withdrawn from Colorado’s individual market, small group market, or both.
  
• Under the Colorado option, consumers are seeing reduced competition and fewer health plans from which to choose.
  

A Risky, Unsustainable Experiment With Coloradans’ Care

• DOI continues to deliberately conflate the Colorado Option with the state’s reinsurance program, the only program currently delivering meaningful, measurable savings to Colorado consumers. DOI’s spin is entirely dependent on sowing this confusion and on the continued flow of federal subsidies that fund the lion’s share of this reinsurance program.
  
• Despite DOI spinning the facts and putting its thumbs on the scale in attempting to boost Colorado Option enrollment, the approximately 80,000 enrollees represent just 1.4 percent of Colorado’s population – far from the number of enrollees needed to produce any sustainable reform to the market.
  

Instead of pressing forward with its failed Colorado Option, the state should acknowledge its costs and negative consequences for consumers, patients and the hospitals, providers and health coverage market that Coloradans depend on.

Every Coloradan deserves access to affordable, high-quality health coverage and care. The facts show that this is a result the Colorado Option is failing to deliver.

To read COHCF’s recent letter to the Colorado Division of Insurance click here.