Centennial stretches along the Arapahoe Road corridor on the south side of the metro, next door to the Denver Tech Center's office towers and close to Centennial Airport's aviation businesses. The residents are heavily professional: tech workers, consultants, and a wave of people who traded corporate jobs for independent work after twenty years of employer benefits. That last group is who calls me most from this zip code, usually a little startled at what the individual market looks like.
The rules here
| Short-term products | Not available in Colorado |
| Extended short-term (multi-year) | Not available |
| Products available | ACA marketplace, supplemental |
| Exchange type | State-based (Connect for Health Colorado) |
| Open enrollment | Set by the state exchange, generally opening November 1 |
| Medicaid expansion | Yes |
What's available in Centennial
| Coverage line | Available here | Key limit | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace plans | Yes | Open enrollment or a qualifying event | ACA plans |
| Short-term medical | No | Restrictions leave no carrier in the market | Short-term |
| Extended short-term (multi-year) | No | Zero market under state rules | Extended plans |
| Fixed indemnity | No | Not sold as standalone coverage in Colorado | |
| Supplemental (accident, critical illness, dental, vision) | Yes | Set benefits beside major medical | Accident · Critical illness · Dental · Vision |
Supplemental coverage pays defined amounts for named events and is not minimum essential coverage. Keep a medical plan underneath it.
What one person pays for coverage in Colorado
Average monthly premiums for individual coverage. Family pricing differs; quotes are individual.
| Coverage type | Monthly premium (individual) | What that number is |
|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace (before subsidy) | $673 avg. | State average, before tax credits (CMS Marketplace OEP, 2026).1 |
| ACA marketplace (after average subsidy) | $187 after credit | State average, after the average tax credit, among subsidized enrollees (CMS Marketplace OEP, 2026).1 |
| Employer coverage (single / family) | $698 / $2081 single / family | State average total monthly premium, single / family; employee pays about $159/mo toward single coverage (MEPS-IC, 2024).2 |
| Medicaid | $0 or nominal for those who qualify | Program design, not an average; eligibility is income-based5 |
| Accident | $39.95 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Colorado with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Critical Illness | $55.08 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Colorado with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
Consultants leaving corporate jobs often assume they earn too much for help. Sometimes true, sometimes not: the credit follows this year's household income, and the first year of independent work frequently runs lower than the W-2 that preceded it.
Averages from federal data and our own client base, not quotes. Your price depends on your age, household, income, and plan choice.
Centennial at a glance
The city functions as a professional suburb wrapped around the south metro's office and aviation employment, with the Tech Center's consulting, telecom, and finance firms a short drive from most neighborhoods. Household incomes rank among the higher in the metro, so many buyers here compare unsubsidized plans on network and out-of-pocket design rather than premium alone.
| Population | County | Metro |
|---|---|---|
| ~108,000 | Arapahoe (FIPS 08005) | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood |
Three Centennial situations
Paul, 48, IT consultant who left a Tech Center firm in June. His Special Enrollment Period runs 60 days from the day group coverage ended. He compares COBRA, which keeps his family's deductible progress, against a marketplace plan priced on his lower first-year consulting income. The math favored the marketplace once the credit was included.
Shreya, 37, corporate attorney whose spouse stays home with two kids. Her firm covers her well but the family premium is steep. They have an agent price the spouse and children on the marketplace against the employer family premium.
Ken, 64, retired aviation manager eleven months from Medicare. One year to bridge, no employer plan, and no short-term product in Colorado to bridge it with. A marketplace plan takes him regardless of health history and hands off to Medicare on schedule.
How Colorado's rules work
Colorado's rules on short-term limited duration insurance are restrictive enough that carriers sell none; the market is zero. State regulation binds here, so shifts in federal short-term enforcement do not put products back on the shelf.
Individual coverage flows through Connect for Health Colorado, the state exchange, which sets its own calendar with open enrollment generally opening November 1. Colorado expanded Medicaid, covering adults on income alone, though most Centennial households will interact with the marketplace side. Qualifying events open Special Enrollment Periods of roughly 60 days, and the COBRA election runs in parallel after a job separation. Deciding between those two paths, on deadline, is the most common piece of work I do for this part of the metro.
Leaving corporate benefits behind? A licensed Colorado agent can map the transition before your last day. No obligation.
Keep reading — more Colorado guides
Premium data methodology. 1 Marketplace premium averages reflect the average monthly premium before advance premium tax credits, the average monthly premium after advance premium tax credits among subsidized enrollees, and the percentage of enrollees receiving advance premium tax credits, for Colorado, as reported in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Marketplace Open Enrollment Period Public Use Files, 2026 plan year, available at cms.gov. Figures are statewide averages across all metal tiers, ages, and household sizes; your premium will differ based on your age, household, income, county, and plan selection.
2 Employer coverage averages reflect the average total monthly premium for single and family coverage at private-sector establishments in Colorado, including both employer and employee contributions, as reported in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2024 tables, available at meps.ahrq.gov. Employee contribution figure reflects the average employee share of the single-coverage premium. Employer plan costs vary by employer, plan design, and firm size.
3 Client averages are calculated from GetHealthPlans.com (MTG Insurance Agency LLC) internal book-of-business records as of July 15, 2026 and reflect the median or mean monthly premium, as labeled, among active policies providing individual coverage (one covered person) of the stated product type held by our clients residing in the stated state or, where labeled agency-wide, across all states in which we operate. Family and multi-person policies are excluded so that figures reflect what one person pays. Figures are shown only for states and products where our records include a sufficient number of active individual policies to report a meaningful average, with a minimum of ten; combinations below that threshold are not shown. Where a figure is labeled "median," half of our client policies in that group pay less and half pay more. Our client base reflects the products we sell, skews toward medically underwritten coverage, and may not represent all buyers or all plans available in a state. These figures are historical averages of premiums actually paid by our clients, are not quotes, offers, or projections, and are not statements of what any individual will pay. Individual premiums are determined by the insurer at application based on age, location, term length, benefit selections, and underwriting outcomes.
4 No federal or state agency publishes average premium data for short-term limited duration insurance or fixed indemnity insurance. Where we do not display a client-base figure for these products, it is because we do not have sufficient policy volume in that state to report a meaningful average. Short-term and fixed indemnity products are medically underwritten, are not major medical coverage, are not required to cover pre-existing conditions or essential health benefits, and do not constitute minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
5 Medicaid and CHIP are public programs, not insurance products sold by this agency. Premiums are $0 or nominal for those who qualify; eligibility is determined by your state based on income, household size, and other factors. The figure shown describes program design, not an average. Contact your state Medicaid agency or HealthCare.gov to check eligibility.