About 96,000 Coloradans who buy their health insurance on the individual marketplace could need to find new plans after two large companies pulled back, state officials announced Wednesday.
Rocky Mountain HMO notified the state it will drop 20 plans in seven counties in the Denver area, according to the Colorado Division of Insurance. About 26,000 people currently have insurance through one of those plans.
Anthem’s HMO Colorado said it will make even deeper cuts, dropping 62 plans with about 70,000 enrollees, or roughly two-thirds of all the insurer’s individual-market members in Colorado.
About 296,000 people enrolled in marketplace plans this year, meaning roughly one in three enrollees could need to find a new plan.
Emily Snooks, spokeswoman for Anthem, said the company might not withdraw so many plans, but because of state deadlines, it had to file notices now for every plan it could choose to drop.
“We hope to withdraw this notification and offer plans in as many regions as possible once the state rate review is complete. Most importantly, Anthem will remain in any community where our departure would otherwise leave Coloradans without coverage options,” she said.
Both carriers are dropping plans in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert and Jefferson counties. Anthem also will stop offering plans in Boulder, Clear Creek, El Paso, Gilpin, Larimer, Park, Mesa, Teller and Weld counties.
All of the affected counties have at least one seller remaining in the individual market. People whose plans won’t be available starting Jan. 1 will receive a notice at least 90 days before the end of the year, the Division of Insurance said.
Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway said Congress’ decision not to extend increased subsidies put in place during the pandemic destabilized the market.
The state legislature could appropriate funding to stabilize the market in its upcoming special session, he said, though the state’s $783 million budget gap could make any new spending a tough sell.
The division previously estimated that monthly premiums will rise an average of 28% next year as subsidies go down and healthier people opt to leave the market rather than pay the higher prices. Rocky Mountain HMO and Anthem projected larger rate increases of 36.4% and 33.6%, respectively.
In June, the state estimated about 110,000 people would lose individual marketplace coverage if the enhanced subsidies expired and changes in H.R. 1, known as the Big Beautiful Bill, made it more difficult to enroll. It didn’t release updated projections of how many people might forgo coverage if their current plan isn’t available.
“DOI is doing everything possible to stabilize the market, but without action now, hardworking people are going to receive devastatingly high rate increases and more than a hundred thousand people will lose coverage as a result,” Conway said in a news release.