The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Local insurance rates expected to increase drastically in 2026
[ By Katherine Nettles ](Editor’s note: this is the first in a three-part series looking at how federal and state cuts to healthcare funding may impact Gunnison County, and how various local leaders and concerned parties are responding.
State and federal policies have chartered a course to change the way that healthcare will look in 2026 and beyond, and that is expected to make significant financial impacts here in the Gunnison Valley among anyone seeking or offering healthcare. Medicaid cuts and potentially huge insurance premium rate increases are expected to put pressure on individuals and providers, and local policymakers, healthcare officials and advocates are working in different ways to address some widespread concerns.
In early July, the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) released a preliminary review of the proposed premium increases for 2026, based on the federal tax bill that passed this summer cutting healthcare subsidies, adding new limits and technicalities to the subsidies that will remain and Congress’ decision to let enhanced healthcare tax credits expire on December 31 in lieu of extension.
The DOI estimated a 28% hike in premiums statewide (among those who pay for individual plans versus group plans through an employer) and more than 38% premium increases for the western part of the state, including Gunnison County.
The DOI said insurance companies estimate nearly 100,000 Coloradans will lose their health insurance coverage altogether.
Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick has expressed major concerns with these anticipated premium increases for rural western communities like ours, and on a much larger scale, for the sustainability of the country’s overall healthcare system.
“The two trends that I worry about are how individuals are being hit and the lack of cost control,” said Billick in a recent conversation with the Crested Butte News. “We’re going to be driving a lot of people out of healthcare because we’re seeing these steep increases. I’m afraid the whole healthcare system will collapse.”
Billick has been conducting research of local healthcare demographics, starting with the town of Crested Butte but extending county-wide. “We have about 2,800 people in the county that are covered through the state exchange,” he reviewed. “Fifty percent of the county is on a group healthcare plan, and 25% is on Medicare and Medicaid. About 16% are covered by the private exchange.”
Billick highlighted the private exchange issue, which he said hits close to home. “Monthly premiums may go up 40%, and subsidies will also go away which could increase costs as much as 250%. I’ve estimated that for a high-deductible plan for a family of four like mine it will go from costing about $10,000 per year to about $40,000 per year,” he said.
The restructuring of Medicaid will be a major issue for individuals losing their benefits and for healthcare providers who will treat them, Billick recognizes.
“I think there are more people that will be impacted by Medicaid. But the private marketplace will have a whole different set of problems. The combination of multiple groups getting kicked off of healthcare simultaneously and these premium rate increases is the problem.”
Billick is still working to get more information and perhaps find local solutions, whether from regional alliances or from candid conversations with healthcare leaders about their costs for services. He recently dug into numbers with the town of Crested Butte staff about their own healthcare premium costs for employees, which he characterizes as “generous.” He learned that the town’s budget is getting hit harder by premium increases for its 65 employees. The town spent more than 8% of its total operating budget in 2024 on those premiums, then had a 13% increase in 2025 and has been quoted a 14% increase for 2026. The town plans to issue a request for proposals to see if it can reduce that cost.
Billick has drafted two letters, addressed to Gunnison Valley Health (GVH) and Gunnison County commissioners and to state representatives respectively requesting more proactive steps and advocacy; he has been in conversation with these entities as well. The CB town council will review those letters for possible adoption at their meeting next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, GVH has its own set of struggles ahead.
“We have called them significant healthcare headwinds,” said GVH CEO Jason Amrich in a separate conversation with the CB News. Amrich said GVH’s strategic planning board met at the end of July, and the discussion was centered around Medicaid decreases in the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill. “This is a super rough calculation, but if we use the National Rural Health Association (NRHA)’s calculations and GVH’s payer-mix percentage, we’re looking at maybe $2 million annually in decreased Medicaid funding. That’s what we are looking at as a team and as a board, and asking where can we add service, where can we pull back? It’s both a scarcity and an abundance mindset. You can’t cut your way to prosperity, but we’re looking for efficiencies. Rural hospitals could lose about 21 cents out of every Medicaid funding dollar. That would take effect in 2026 after the midterm elections. So we’re trying not to panic but also doing our due diligence about these things.”
Amrich emphasized that GVH might lose Medicaid compensation funding, but it will not be turning anyone away. “We treat all people regardless of ability to pay. That means GVH’s uncompensated care could increase as well as cuts to Medicaid.”
He echoed Billick’s concerns for the private market as well.
“What’s not talked about enough are subsidies for health insurance going away. So premiums could increase significantly for others.”
Connect For Health Colorado (CHC) is the state’s official health insurance marketplace and reported that 282,400 people in Colorado enrolled in insurance for 2025, and 80% of them received financial assistance to reduce their premium rates. The number of those who enrolled increased 19% from 2024, and enrollment numbers have hit record levels for the past five years, according to CHC officials. Average statewide premium increases were 5.6% in 2025, 9.7% in 2024, 10.4% in 2023 and 1.1% in 2022.
“These circumstances are not unique to Colorado, and other states will likely have similar increases,” wrote the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies last month in response to the DOI estimates of premium increases and Medicaid cuts. “Driving these increases is the loss of additional financial assistance that helps middle-class Coloradans afford health insurance and puts downward pressure on rates.”
In the coming weeks we will discuss more of GVH’s response to the healthcare cost issues, Billick’s scrutiny of the local healthcare system and how to reduce rural health insurance premiums, and then look at some proposed solutions including a “one payer system.”
