20 Jan, 2026
Colorado insurance chief flags ACA, wildfires as key policy priorities in 2026
By Jason Woleben and Tyler Hammel
 Smoke rises from a wildfire near Lyons, Colorado, on July 30, 2024. |
As Colorado faces ongoing issues related to climate change and federal cuts to health insurance funding, State Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway and his team are pursuing more policy and legislative solutions in the coming year.
Among the most significant issues facing Coloradans is a dilemma facing much of the country: health insurance. As federal support — including broadened eligibility for the Affordable Care Act tax credits — expired Dec. 31, enrollees have seen significant premium hikes since open enrollment for 2026 began Nov. 1.
Ahead of the government shutdown tied to Congressional Democrats' demands to extend the tax credits, Conway's office supported legislation passed in the Rocky Mountain state earlier in 2025 to make health insurance more accessible. The legislation, passed in July, authorizes the sale of up to $125 million in insurance premium tax credits and corporate income tax credits for the current fiscal year, enabling qualifying companies to pay certain state taxes early at a discount. However, the legislation will not fully mitigate consumer impacts, Conway said, and federal changes are necessary.
"Obviously, we would love to see Congress extend the enhanced premium tax credits, but as we sit here right now, it does not seem incredibly likely," Conway said in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence. "So we'll continue to have conversations about extending the funding that we put in place last in the special session over the summer, to make sure that we can keep the premium wrap in place that we've had for folks."
The US House of Representatives voted Jan. 8 to extend the enhanced subsidies for three years, with 17 Republicans crossing the aisle to support the Democratic measure. The bill must now pass the US Senate, which voted against the same measure in December. US President Donald Trump has indicated that he might veto any such legislative effort, while he also announced his own healthcare solution — one that does not directly address ACA tax credits — on Jan. 15.
Colorado's largest managed care insurer is Kaiser Permanente Inc., followed by Elevance Health Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc., according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Several publicly traded managed care insurers have commented on the need for ACA tax credit extensions in recent months. These calls are expected to become louder in the coming weeks as fourth-quarter 2025 enrollment data is released.
Wildfires
In 2025, the Colorado Division of Insurance was involved in drafting HB 1182, which requires a property insurer to use a wildfire risk model, a catastrophe model or a scoring method to assign risk when underwriting.
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Michael Conway was |
The bill was inspired in part by efforts in Florida to incorporate hurricane models into homeowners insurance underwriting and is among the first pieces of legislation in the US to incorporate similar requirements for wildfire risk models, Conway said.
"There are some other states that have kind of followed suit with what Florida has done, but the wildfire models are relatively new and coming to grips with those models is going to be a key part of the ... work going forward when it comes to homeowners insurance," he said.
The bill additionally requires that insurance companies include the mitigation work being done both at the individual property level and the community level gets into the models that they are using, according to Conway, and allows individuals to appeal their wildfire scores.
The office will also continue to support its similarly targeted reinsurance efforts, which work by paying a portion of high-cost claims, allowing insurance companies to lower the premiums for individual health insurance plans, per Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies website.
The office also plans to support a new version of a house bill that did not pass the state legislature in 2025, which seeks to set up a hail grant program to help homeowners fortify their roofs and a wildfire reinsurance program to offset wildfire risks and costs in parts of the state.
"As far as mitigation is concerned, there's only so much that you can do when you have extensive periods of what is effectively droughts, like we have what we're having right now and in the fall into the winter and having these big wind events," Conway said.
"I think the key, from my vantage point, is making sure that we're doing as much as we can to explain to folks why that risk is occurring more and make sure that people stay aware that fire danger extends into the winter now."
Other states have enacted legislation to include catastrophe models in the wake of wildfires, with California a major focus of efforts.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest P&C insurer in Colorado, has made a variety of wildfire-related changes to its rates and rate calculations in the wake of 2025's massive spate of wildfires in California. The company has been the target of regulatory probes in California, as well as legislation aimed to improving the claims process for consumers.
Auto insurance
In November, Colorado Governor Jared Polis released his "Roadmap to Reduce Auto Insurance Premiums," a comprehensive report outlining the state's efforts to lower auto insurance costs.
The report details the multiagency efforts to reduce costs, including improving road safety and reducing crashes through speed enforcement programs, cracking down on auto thefts, and decreasing the number of uninsured drivers, among other things.
"When it comes to auto insurance, there's so much from outside of the insurance industry that does have a pretty substantial impact — car thefts, road safety, those types of things," Conway said.
"It's very much a multiagency attack on the issue, but we are excited to be a part of the effort."