COLORADO · 64 COUNTIES · 2027 FILINGS · SEPTEMBER 2026
What does employer health coverage cost in Colorado?
Marketplace plans cost 8% less per member per month than group plans here. And no county has a PPO.
Colorado is one of 9 states on both lists: cheaper on the marketplace, and no out-of-network coverage purchasable anywhere. That's the trade to put in front of your CFO before anyone signs. Insurers asked for 15.0% more on marketplace plans for 2027 and 11.6% on group.
Colorado, by the filings
What did insurers actually file for Colorado?
Every figure below comes from the filings insurers submitted to regulators. 2027 numbers are requested, not approved. Approvals land in October.
| Colorado | Figure | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 requested change, marketplace plans | +15.0% +10.2% to +23.9% across 5 insurers | Almost exactly the national median of 15.3%. |
| 2027 requested change, employer group plans | +11.6% +9.3% to +19.1% across 5 insurers | Group asked for 3.4 points less than marketplace, but starts from a higher base here. |
| 2026 approved change | +20.4% marketplace +12.7% group | Compounded with 2027, that's roughly 26% to 38% on top of 2025. |
| Lowest cost silver plan, age 40, typical county | $671 per month $500 to $853 across counties | A $353 spread. Mountain counties price very differently from the Front Range. |
| Counties with a PPO or POS plan filed | 0 of 64 | Out-of-network coverage is not purchasable anywhere in Colorado at any price. |
| Typical county, lowest cost silver by plan type | $671 HMO · no PPO | There is no PPO price to compare, because no insurer files one. |
| Marketplace vs group cost per member per month, 2026 | $692 marketplace $755 group | Marketplace costs 8% less per member. Colorado is one of the 22 states where that's true. |
| Insurers competing per county | 1 to 6 | At least one Colorado county has a single insurer, so there's no competition on price there. |
What it means for a Colorado employer
Cheaper on paper, and your people lose out-of-network access. Which matters more?
Colorado is one of 9 states where both things are true at once. Marketplace plans cost about 8% less per member per month than group plans, and not one of the 64 counties has a PPO or POS plan filed.
The Colorado-specific read: the price case for a CHOICE Arrangement is real here, which is not true in most states. The network case against it is also real. So the deciding question isn't cost, it's how many of your people currently see a doctor outside the network. Pull that from your claims file before anyone builds a model. If the number is small, Colorado is one of the better states in the country for a CHOICE Arrangement. If it isn't, you're trading 8% for a disruption that shows up in month 2.
Where the money is either way: not the plan type, the design changes inside it. Sourcing 2,000+ medications at a $0 copay for the whole household. Unlimited virtual primary and behavioral care so a $0 visit replaces an urgent care trip. A supplemental layer that pays the employer back every pay period instead of adding a line item.
Those have landed at $2,000+ per employee per year in real client projects, with about $988 per employee per year in new cashflow on top of that and independent of it. About $100K per year for every 50 people. $0 upfront, billed out of savings, live in 30 to 45 days. Same broker, same doctors, same cards.
Compare the 12 plan designs · All 50 states and DC · PPO availability by county · Benchmark your cost
Results vary by group size, plan design, and utilization.
Where these Colorado numbers come from
Rate changes are the midpoint of what each insurer requested in Colorado, from the CMS rate review service, pulled September 17, 2026. 2027 figures are proposed and still under review; regulators can trim them before approvals land in October. Colorado runs its own marketplace, so county premiums come from the plan and rate files the state submits to CMS for plan year 2026, matched to counties through the pricing regions the state assigns, covering all 64 counties. Premiums are the lowest cost plan per metal level for a 40-year-old non-smoker before any subsidy.
The marketplace versus group cost comparison uses the 2026 average premium per member per month from the insurers' own filings on both sides, weighted by enrollment. It is an average across each plan's enrolled mix, not a same-metal, same-plan-type quote. A true like-for-like comparison at the same age and metal level is possible in only 2 states from public files. PPO availability counts every plan filed in every Colorado county and asks whether any of them is a PPO or POS; HMO includes EPO and PPO includes POS, because the split that matters is whether a doctor outside the network is covered at all.
Nothing here is a quote.
