This week, the Colorado Division of Insurance is hosting a meeting with stakeholders from across the health care landscape to discuss health insurance affordability in Colorado. Specifically, the group will discuss affordability in the individual market, or in other words, health insurance an individual buys on their own rather than through an employer.

Though I am glad the CDI is taking the time to talk about the high costs of health care in our state, it’s important to note we cannot discuss the costs of health care in Colorado without acknowledging the overwhelmingly negative impact the one-size-fits-all Colorado Option has on the state’s health insurance market — specifically its contribution to raising costs for patients and their families.

The DOI meeting this week is an opportunity for stakeholders to acknowledge this truth.

The state government-run health insurance system known as the Colorado Option passed the legislature in 2021. Its supporters promised it would lower insurance costs for individuals and increase choice in the individual and small-group health insurance markets. Advocates said it would decrease premiums and improve access to health care in every corner of the state. But it has failed on all these fronts.

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Three years later, we continue to see the state government-controlled health care option is having the opposite effect of what was promised. Health care premiums in the individual market have not gone down and many consumers have fewer options when choosing an insurance plan.

In short, the Colorado Option has failed to solve our health care affordability problems — and in many ways, it’s actually made them worse.

The Colorado Option requires insurance companies to deliver Colorado Option plans at government-set premium rates. Mandatory premium decreases require providers to decrease premiums by 5% in the first year, 10% in the second and 15% in the third. However, a report released in April concluded only 15% of plans met the first-year premium targets, and even fewer plans met the second-year targets. The arbitrary price controls set by the Colorado Option simply did not work — they were unsustainable and unable to lower costs for consumers. Instead, insurance premiums have gone up across individual market plans by an average of 10%, after a similar double-digit increase in 2023.

In many Colorado counties, individuals would have to spend more to enroll in the Colorado Option than they would to enroll in a traditional health plan. Maybe that’s why only 1.5% of our state’s population enrolled in the Colorado Option. To achieve meaningful, widespread reform in the health insurance market, the Colorado Option would need to have a much bigger reach. Consumers seem to know what some legislators don’t — the Colorado Option is not the best option on the market.

Lastly, the government-run Colorado Option is hurting competition and driving insurance companies out of our state. Since its implementation, four health insurance providers have left the individual or small-group markets due to the Colorado Option’s unsustainable price mandates. Those same mandates will certainly make it near impossible to bring new health plans to the state.

A one-size-fits-all, state government-imposed health insurance system that increases costs, fails to appeal to consumers and harms competition is no solution to our health care problems.

When the Division of Insurance and stakeholders meet this week, they should acknowledge the failure of the Colorado Option and begin to consider solutions that can make a real impact in the health insurance market. If we want to increase access to high-quality, affordable health care, we must build upon what’s working and set aside what’s not.

Janice Rich represents Mesa County and part of Delta County in the Colorado state Senate and serves on the Senate Health & Human Services Committee.