Overview:
A Denver family's struggle with rising health insurance premiums highlights how expiring tax credits will raise costs for Coloradans in 2026.
In 2023, Robin Hanselman was paying a $650 monthly premium under her employer-based health insurance coverage. Now, Robin pays nearly the same amount for her two daughters’ annual physicals on top of a $1,300 monthly premium. Then, last week, her husband fell.
“I was lying on the garage floor yesterday with a broken femur,” Robin’s husband, Michael, said. “And all I could think was, ‘This ambulance is going to cost a fortune.'”
Michael and Robin Hanselman live in South Denver with their two daughters, Denise (21) and Gabby (17). Until December 2023, Robin worked as Vice President of Sales at tech company Emburse. After leaving Emburse, Robin worked as a Fractional Chief Revenue Officer for smaller companies, and her monthly premium almost tripled.
Robin then became an independent consultant in March 2025 and began her tumultuous journey in finding affordable health insurance for her and her family.
“We initially started looking at plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but the challenge with that is that the ACA works if you make less than four times the poverty level and then you get a break on the premiums.” Robin said. “We made too much money to qualify for any sort of discounts on those monthly premiums so it wasn’t really going to be a great option for us. We’re not rolling in money, we’re not rich, but according to [the ACA] we still made too much money for any help there.”
The Hanselmans are far from alone. As health insurance costs continue to rise and federal subsidies expire, hundreds of thousands of Colorado families who rely on the individual insurance market are finding themselves paying more for less coverage or delaying care altogether.
Currently, the Hanselmans are on a plan with a $1,300 monthly premium that covers Robin and their daughters, but Michael was left out because of his high cholesterol. The plan also does not cover many services. Robin recounted taking her daughters to their annual check-ups and was shocked to receive a $580 hospital bill shortly thereafter.
“You can go to the doctor, but they can’t do anything,” Robin said. “And if they do something, you’re going to pay for it. It’s just been one bad surprise after another. We found out in a house full of three women that the prescription drug coverage doesn’t cover birth control.”
Robin said that the biggest change for their family since leaving her company with employer insurance is the cost of deductibles, the amount paid before insurance begins covering costs. The Hanselmans researched plans for next year, but with rising premiums and $10,000 deductibles, Robin had to pivot career paths again.
“I can make a decent income for myself that supports the family in a way that we’re accustomed to through consulting.” Robin said. “But the premiums are going up across-the-board for health insurance and all the deductibles are going up, so because of that, I decided not to be an independent consultant anymore.”
Robin will return to work as a Fractional Chief Revenue Officer in January 2026 and has moved all of her and her family’s check-ups to January so that they can receive coverage.
“It makes you really question whether you need to go to the doctor,” Robin said. “You really think about it like, ‘Do we have to go to the doctor or do I have some antibiotics in the drawer that I could just give Gabby so she can get through this?’”
For Colorado families like the Hanselmans navigating the individual insurance marketplace, costs are going to skyrocket in 2026 because enhanced federal tax credits from 2021 are expiring. An estimated 225,000 Coloradans in the individual marketplace will see a 101% increase in premiums in 2026.
“At this point in time, our Congress is led by Republicans,” Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI) Communications Manager Priya Telang said. “So this is really a choice that they’re making to ensure that families are not protected from increasing healthcare costs, and that needs to be at the forefront of the conversations that we’re having.”
CCHI is a nonprofit advocacy organization. They work to be the consumer voice to improve access to healthcare for all Coloradans through advocating at the state legislature and consumer assistance programs that provide direct service to help Coloradans navigate medical billing questions.
“What we truly are working towards is equity, affordability and quality in healthcare,” Telang said. “And that means your everyday person should be able to access care at any point regardless of who they are, where they come from or where they live.”
Due to the expiring tax credits in 2026, Telang said that the individual insurance market is going to lose around a third of its consumers. Costs are expected to rise even more as insurance companies try to compensate for that major loss. Monthly premiums are expected to rise for both individual insurance consumers and employer-based plans.
“I hear this all the time and now I say it all the time but every day I learn something new and terrible about the healthcare industry and that’s why we exist and I wish we didn’t have to exist,” Telang said.
Additionally, the lack of market competition is going to drive up prices with highly consolidated hospital systems in Colorado like UCHealth and CommonSpirit Health because consolidation in the marketplace makes it harder for insurers to negotiate fair prices for consumers. Telang said that these factors are going to severely impact Colorado families’ spending all around.
“Right now we’re living in an era where all of our costs are rising overall,” Telang said. “So if you have a regular family whose premium doubles overnight, that family is going to have to make some tough decisions on whether or not their kids get access to care, whether they’re going to stay insured or if they’re going to afford their rent for that month or other necessities.”
Telang predicted that more and more Coloradans are going to enroll in lower premium plans that lack coverage with higher deductibles, leading to steep medical bills.
“It’s really upsetting and frustrating that our leaders in Congress are failing,” Telang said. “Coloradans and everyday Americans that are just trying to be healthy and exist in this life are having to deal with rising costs across the board.”
Medical bills have already begun to haunt the Hanselmans. Less than a month before Robin starts her new job and will reap the benefits of employer-based health insurance once again, Michael’s femur was split in two in his freak accident. The injury required surgery, x-rays, prescription drugs and multiple overnight stays in the hospital.
“We’re holding our breath because we’re not sure what [their health insurance plan] is going to deny or include,” Robin said. “We have no idea how many thousands and thousands of dollars this is going to cost us but we do know it will be thousands and thousands of dollars.”
