Back in late 2021, Colorado launched their own new, state-based ACA financial subsidies on top of federal subsidies which have already been enhanced (at least through the end of 2025) via the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act:
The financial help you can get to lower your out-of-pocket costs are healthcare discounts called Cost-Sharing Reductions. Connect for Health Colorado is the only place you can apply for financial help to lower the cost of private health insurance. Due to the American Rescue Plan, Coloradans are now eligible for more savings than ever before.
Consider a Silver plan if your Health First Colorado (Medicaid) coverage recently ended or your income is over the limit to qualify
Connect for Health Colorado launched a new state-funded program recently to provide even more healthcare savings to people shopping on the Marketplace for 2022 whose income is just over the limit to receive Health First Colorado (Medicaid) and who enroll in a Silver-level plan.
In the United States, major medical insurance policies for those who don't have healthcare coverage through their employer, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, the Veteran's Administration or some other source are available via the ACA's individual market exchanges. The individual market for residents of 36 states is HealthCare.Gov; the remaining 14 states + DC each have their own ACA exchange, such as Covered California, NY State of Health and so forth.
There are usually dozens of ACA policies available via the ACA exchanges, but they fall into five major categories: Catastrophic, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum plans (other major distinctions include HMOs vs. PPOs and other variables,but those are for another day).
With rare exceptions, Catastrophic plans are only available to enrollees under 30 years old. ACA premium subsidies can't be used to help pay for Catastrophic plans either, so enrollment is rare; during the 2020 Open Enrollment Period, only 89,000 ACA exchange enrollees selected Catastrophic plans out of over 11.4 million total, or just 0.8%.
