If you’re shopping for health insurance in Colorado, you have two real options: Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s official marketplace, or a private plan you buy directly. Which one makes sense depends less on where you live and more on how predictable your income is and how healthy you are — and getting that call wrong can be expensive.
Connect for Health Colorado works like every ACA marketplace: you estimate your income for the year, and your subsidy is calculated against that estimate. Coverage runs on the same calendar as the rest of the country — mark your calendar for 2027 open enrollment — but the stakes for getting your estimate right just went up. The enhanced premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025, which means anyone earning above 400% of the federal poverty level gets no subsidy at all, and no cap on what they’d have to repay if they guessed low.
A private, medically underwritten plan sidesteps that problem entirely. Your rate is based on your health and age, not your income, so there’s no annual guess to get wrong and nothing to repay at tax time. For a healthy Colorado resident — especially someone self-employed or on commission, where income swings year to year — that predictability is often worth more than the subsidy it replaces.
The right answer depends on your specific numbers, not a general rule, so I’d rather run both comparisons for you than guess. A 15-minute consultation is free, and there’s no obligation.