Only in Colorado do you get back-to-back billion-dollar budget holes and politicians still patting themselves on the back for “health insurance affordability” while your premiums are about to double.
Let’s walk through what the legislature actually did, who got the goodies, and who’s getting the bill.
Step 1: They Built a “Fee” Machine to Dodge TABOR
Back in 2020, Democrats at the Capitol passed SB20-215 and created the Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise (HIAE).
That bill did three big things:
- Created a new “health insurance affordability fee” on insurers based on the premiums you pay for state-regulated coverage.
- Slapped a new “special assessment” on hospitals in 2022 and 2023.
- Poured that cash into a new Health Insurance Affordability Fund to be spent by this enterprise.
According to the Colorado legislature’s own description and later analysis, that enterprise now collects about $130 million a year in fees from hospitals alone, plus tens of millions more from the insurer fee and diverted premium tax revenue. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars every year pulled out of the health-care system and routed through a board most voters can’t name. (Colorado General Assembly)
And why is it called a “fee” and not a tax?
Because under TABOR, a big new tax has to go to the ballot. An “enterprise fee” doesn’t. So instead of asking you, they set up an enterprise, slapped the word “fee” on a revenue stream that looks, walks, and quacks like a tax, and called it good.
And guess who the FEE gets passed on to – YOU!
Step 2: Aim the Money at New Entitlements – Including Illegal Immigrants
Fast-forward a couple years.
Democrats don’t just keep the enterprise; they start hanging new programs on it:
- OmniSalud – a program that lets people who don’t qualify for federal subsidies (including illegal immigrants) buy standardized Colorado Option plans and get state-funded subsidies. Colorado’s own exchange describes OmniSalud as a way for “undocumented Coloradans” to safely shop and enroll. That’s government-speak for people here illegally. (Connect for Health Colorado)
- HB22-1289 (“Cover All Coloradans”) – expanding Medicaid-level coverage to children and pregnant women regardless of immigration status. (The bill actually says “pregnant persons.” I just can’t put that kind of demonic lie on this website.) The Common Sense Institute notes this as one of several new laws expanding coverage to non-citizens, funded by more state spending and HIAE-linked policy. (Common Sense Institute)
By early 2025, here’s what the mainstream press – not some conservative blog (like this one) – is reporting:
- OmniSalud enrollment: More than 13,000 people signed up through Colorado Connect, including 12,000 getting subsidized coverage through OmniSalud for 2025. (The Colorado Sun)
- Who’s being targeted: The program is explicitly designed to provide health insurance subsidies regardless of immigration status, to people who can’t get federal help. (The Colorado Sun)
And then comes the kicker:
- CBS Colorado reports that OmniSalud currently “receives about $18 million a year in fees now to help about 12,000 non-citizens,” and that HB 1297 at the Capitol this spring would have nearly quadrupled that to $75 million a year by doubling the insurance fee on your health plan. Thank God the bill failed. This time, anyway. There’s always next year when you’re a democrat. (CBS News)
Even some Democrats will admit in hearings: “No fee is free.” When you jack up fees on insurance carriers, they don’t pay it out of friendship. They bake it into premiums for Colorado families and small businesses.
This is not a conspiracy. It’s literally what the industry and DOI presentations say out loud.
Step 3: Meanwhile, Your Premiums Go Vertical
While the Capitol congratulates itself on “affordability,” here’s what’s happening in the real world:
- Average statewide premium increases on the individual market:
- 2022: 1.1%
- 2023: 10.4%
- 2024: 9.7%
- 2025: 5.6% (Colorado Newsline)
- For 2026, carriers have filed for an average 28% increase in individual-market premiums, according to the Colorado Division of Insurance and multiple outlets. Consumer advocates and the Division both say many families will see total premiums roughly double once federal tax credits expire. (Colorado Public Radio)
Yet, led by Governor Polis, who do Democrats blame for their own failure? Donald Trump. Always blame Trump. Normie Coloradans seem to buy it. One analysis from Connect for Health and DOI lays it out brutally:
- 321,000 Coloradans on the individual market will be hit.
- A family of four in the Denver metro area could see about $14,000 more per year for a standard silver plan if Congress doesn’t restore tax credits (the same “tax credits” that, even under Biden, were always meant to be just a temporary, COVID thing, and should have never been issued with printed money in the first place). (Colorado Public Radio)
So yes, regular, legal Coloradans – the “Normies” of whom I so fondly speak – are staring at five-figure premium hikes, on top of years of steady increases. When will my Normies wake up?!
And tucked inside your bill? Enterprise “fees” that lawmakers tried to double so they could keep zero-premium plans for illegal immigrants fully funded while the rest of you dig for couch change to stay insured.
Step 4: And Now – Surprise – Another Billion-Dollar Shortfall
Now drop this into the budget picture we’re walking into this January:
- The state already had to wrestle with a $1.2 billion shortfall while writing the current budget, largely driven by rising costs for health care and education, according to nonpartisan briefings summarized by Colorado Public Radio and the Colorado Sun. (Colorado Public Radio)
- Then tax cuts created by the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (H.R. 1) blew another $1.2 billion hole in state revenue, forcing lawmakers into a special session to cut about $1 billion out of the budget this fiscal year alone. Governor Gaslight was out there in the press lamenting the “revenue shortfall” created by Trump (blame Trump – always – right, Jared?). Remember, a “revenue shortfall” to Colorado Democrats is actually you keeping more of your money. From where I sit, that’s a good thing. (Colorado Public Radio)
- On top of that, the structural deficit going into the next budget year (starting July 1, 2026) is forecast at about $1 billion, driven largely by Medicaid growth overwhelming TABOR’s spending cap. Nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff said straight out that keeping the same level of services will cost $850 million more than we’ll have. (The Colorado Sun)
Translation:
Heading into January, the legislature is once again staring at a shortfall pushing a billion dollars, most of their usual tricks are used up, and they’re openly talking about cutting Medicaid, trimming services, and raiding cash funds just to keep the lights on.
Now add this from the Common Sense Institute’s July 2025 report:
- Since 2019, the legislature has passed 182 new health-care laws that together are now costing $858 million a year in state spending and have created $270+ million a year in new fees and reduced refunds to the private sector.
- Without those new health-care laws, the much-publicized $1.2 billion budget shortfall going into 2025 would have been just under $650 million. (Common Sense Institute)
In other words:
They didn’t “stumble into” this mess. They built it – bill by bill, fee by fee, entitlement by entitlement – and now they’re shocked the math doesn’t work. So what do they do? Blame Trump (of course) and begin looking for new sources of “revenue” – that’s you. Or they’ll attack TABOR. That’s almost as good as blaming Trump.
So What’s the Problem? Priorities.
Let’s put the pieces together:
- Democrats created HIAE in 2020 (SB20-215), setting up a permanent “fee” pipeline on hospitals and health insurance to avoid a TABOR tax vote.
- They used that enterprise to:
- Fund reinsurance (which actually did help premiums some years),
- Add more subsidies for citizens, and
- Launch OmniSalud and help implement Cover All Coloradans, which together provide subsidized or Medicaid-equivalent coverage to tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and other non-citizens.
- By 2025, about 12,000 illegal immigrants are getting state-subsidized, often zero-premium coverage through OmniSalud alone, supported by at least $18 million a year in enterprise fees – with lawmakers trying to hike that toward $75 million before the bill stalled. (The Colorado Sun)
- At the same time, the state:
- Faces repeated billion-dollar budget gaps,
- Warns of Medicaid cuts and scaling back services for 1.2 million Coloradans on the program, and
- Announces 28% average premium hikes and doubling premiums for hundreds of thousands of people buying their own insurance in 2026. (Axios)
That is not an “accident.” That is policy choice.
You’re being told there’s no money to keep your own coverage affordable, no room in the budget to avoid Medicaid cuts for citizens, but there is money – and they are willing to raise backdoor taxes on your insurance – to preserve free or nearly-free coverage for people who broke our immigration laws to get here.
Subsidies aren’t science. They’re priorities.
What Needs to Happen Next Session
Going into January, with yet another near-billion-dollar hole on the table and premiums going vertical, here’s what the legislature should be doing – and probably won’t unless enough of us make noise:
- Freeze any new fee hikes tied to HIAE. No more doubling fees on your policy to shovel tens of millions a year into OmniSalud while families are staring at $10,000–$14,000 premium jumps.
- Reprioritize HIAE spending:
- First: keep reinsurance and relief for Colorado citizens and legal residents.
- Last: subsidizing coverage for people who are here illegally. How about we eliminate that? I bet even Normie Coloradans would vote to eliminate that at the ballot box.
- Sunlight on enterprises: Put HIAE and similar enterprises under real public scrutiny. If you’re going to collect hundreds of millions a year in “fees” that function like taxes, the average Coloradan should know where every dollar goes.
- Stop layering new entitlements on top of a structurally broken budget. CSI has already shown that the wave of health-care laws since 2019 is eating hundreds of millions a year on its own. Maybe fix the foundation before adding another story to the house.
If Democrats at the Capitol want to have a moral argument about health care and immigration, we can have that debate. But let’s have it honestly:
- Don’t tell legal, tax-paying Coloradans there’s “no money” for their care while you quietly route enterprise cash and new fees into free coverage for illegal immigrants.
- Don’t call it “health insurance affordability” when premiums are doubling and a bipartisan chorus of budget analysts is warning we’re stuck in permanent Groundhog Day-level deficits.
We can’t keep treating Colorado’s budget like a piñata full of taxpayer dollars and then act shocked when it’s busted.
