Denver's job base runs from state government and aerospace primes to energy firms, a busy startup corridor, and the enormous service economy that feeds off Denver International Airport and downtown tourism. The city also has one of the country's larger populations of freelancers and gig workers per capita. In most states those workers would at least be pitched short-term plans; in Colorado the product simply does not exist, which changes the advice from the first sentence.
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 Denver
| Coverage line | Available here | Key limit | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace plans | Yes | Open enrollment or a qualifying event | ACA plans |
| Short-term medical | No | State caps leave no willing carrier | Short-term |
| Extended short-term (multi-year) | No | Zero market statewide | Extended plans |
| Fixed indemnity | No | Not sold as standalone coverage in Colorado | |
| Supplemental (accident, critical illness, dental, vision) | Yes | Defined benefits beside major medical | Accident · Critical illness · Dental · Vision |
Supplemental lines pay fixed amounts for specific events. They do not meet ACA standards and never substitute for a medical plan.
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 |
Freelance income in Denver swings with project cycles, and the credit formula reads your annual household total. Estimate carefully, update midyear, and treat every projection as provisional until the exchange confirms it.
Averages from federal data and our own client base, not quotes. Your price depends on your age, household, income, and plan choice.
Denver at a glance
The metro's largest employment sectors include aerospace and defense engineering, healthcare systems, financial services, and a hospitality industry sized for a national convention destination. Downtown's coworking floors hold thousands of independent consultants, designers, and developers, the core constituency of the individual marketplace here.
| Population | County | Metro |
|---|---|---|
| ~716,000 | Denver (FIPS 08031) | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood |
Three Denver situations
Jasmine, 32, freelance software developer in Five Points. Project income, no benefits, and a planned two-month sabbatical abroad. She keeps her marketplace plan active through the sabbatical because dropping it would leave no re-entry until a qualifying event or open enrollment, and Colorado offers no stopgap to paper over a voluntary lapse.
Luis, 45, banquet captain downtown. Full-time hours arrive in convention season and evaporate after. His household stays continuously covered by reporting income changes to the exchange: subsidized marketplace coverage in the strong months, Medicaid eligibility for the family in the lean ones.
Nadia, 57, aerospace program manager taking a buyout. Her package bumps this year's income, which trims this year's credit; next year looks different. She takes the marketplace plan that keeps her longtime physicians in network, adds a critical illness supplement, and revisits the credit at renewal.
How Colorado's rules work
Colorado restricts short-term limited duration insurance so heavily that no carrier sells it; the market is zero. Because the restriction is state regulation, federal enforcement decisions about short-term rules change nothing in Denver.
Coverage runs through three coordinated pieces. Connect for Health Colorado, the state exchange, sets its own open enrollment dates, generally opening November 1. Expanded Medicaid covers adults on income alone with no gap below marketplace subsidies. Qualifying events open roughly 60-day Special Enrollment Periods for everything in between: job loss, moves, marriage, birth, aging off a parent's plan. The system assumes continuous participation, and its one unforgiving feature is the voluntary lapse, since nothing exists to bridge someone who simply dropped coverage.
Freelance income, real coverage. A licensed Colorado agent can build a plan around a variable year. 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.