With the upcoming expiration of premium subsidies, data from the Colorado Division of Insurance estimates premiums will increase by 101%, on average, when open enrollment begins this weekend.
According to the analysis, higher premiums will result in around 75,000 Coloradans becoming uninsured.
“I think the biggest concern is folks losing access to their regular care, because we know that those preventative visits keep us from having to incur higher level or specialty care,” MJ Jorgensen, the deputy executive officer for the Northern Colorado Health Alliance, said.
This change applies not to employer-sponsored plans but to private insurance, purchased through Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s marketplace. It launched in 2013, following the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare.
Now, premium increases are forecasted to top 200% in some of Colorado’s rural counties. New legislation passed during the special session over the summer is preventing costs from going even higher.
The Northern Colorado Health Alliance employs a team of certified coverage guides who can walk people through their options on the Connect for Health Colorado website.
“And they talk about, ‘Is this going to work for you?’ And I think there will be more folks in the space saying this premium is far too high,” Jorgensen said.
Since 2021, income-qualified residents have been eligible for Affordable Care Act tax credits that brought premiums down for coverage purchase on the marketplace. These subsidies were later extended through the Inflation Reduction Act but are now set to expire on December 31.
Mitzi Moran, the CEO of Sunrise Community Health, which operates 12 clinics in Weld and Larimer Counties, remembers what happened years ago following the expansion of Medicaid and, before that, the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
“Our uninsured patients could now buy insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act," said Moran. That meant we could bill for services. And when we billed for those services, that revenue helped us expand in the community… We built the Adelante Clinic in Loveland, that added 10,000 patients to Sunrise.”
Now, Sunrise and other federally-qualified health centers are facing financial uncertainty on multiple fronts: frozen federal grants, a roll-back of Medicaid and the expiration of ACA premium tax credits.
“We have had some potential candidates for some of our clinician openings say to us, ‘I really want to join, but it just seems so unstable. I can't right now’,” Moran said.
She says that if this financial uncertainty continues, Sunrise will have to reduce operations in some way, with cuts to facilities, services or staffing.
