It was certainly bad news coming out of the Colorado Division of Insurance on Wednesday that insurance premiums will jump an average of 27 percent when those buying insurance for 2018 go to the individual marketplace looking for plans.

The marketplace, which serves a minority of Colorado residents who don’t qualify for Medicaid and don’t get their insurance through an employer, has been getting more expensive every year at an unsustainable rate.

What’s causing the rise is a multifaceted problem that begins with the sheer cost of health care in the United States, but is more complicated than that. Likely, not enough young healthy Coloradans are buying insurance on the market and instead paying a tax penalty known as the individual mandate. An older, sicker population is more expensive to insure.

Some continue to game the system – buy insurance one year and cram multiple years’ worth of medical care into a single fiscal year under one deductible and then promptly drop insurance. Who can blame them when deductibles are so high?

Read more at The Denver Post.