El Paso County's marketplace has no PPO, but you can still buy nationwide PPO coverage in Colorado. Here's what a Colorado Springs electrician should consider when leaving a contractor's payroll and taking over the family's health insurance.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. As a Colorado-licensed health insurance broker, I help clients over the phone, often during those few minutes between electrical service appointments.
Say you've worked eleven years for a large commercial electrical contractor in Colorado Springs. You've supervised crews working on schools, medical offices and apartment buildings, traveling between Briargate and Fountain. The overtime and driving have worn you down. Meanwhile, former customers keep asking you to handle panel replacements in older Old Colorado City and Westside homes, garage car chargers in Monument, and basement wiring in the subdivisions east of Powers. There's enough work to open your own business. But there's a complication: your wife works part time, and your children, ages five and eight, have had coverage through your contractor's group health plan since birth. Now you need to replace it.
Here's the first thing I'd want this family to understand: Colorado still has nationwide PPO coverage available through me, even if its marketplace doesn't offer one.
In 2026, El Paso County had 67 marketplace medical plans from 5 insurers. That meant 42 HMOs, 25 EPOs and zero PPOs. For 2027, one insurer is exiting Colorado's individual market, removing 14 EPOs. With an HMO or EPO, nonemergency care generally has to stay within the network for the plan to pay. A privately purchased nationwide PPO works differently: it can contribute toward out-of-network care, and the premium is determined after health screening. If your household is healthy and your new electrical business is earning well, I'd put that PPO on the comparison sheet.
You don't need to hold off until November's open enrollment. According to the Colorado Division of Insurance, when employer health coverage ends, you qualify for a 60-day opportunity to enroll in an individual plan. That applies regardless of which month you leave your job.
Two numbers matter when you're comparing coverage. One is the 2027 premium: Colorado's Division of Insurance approved a 9.7% increase for individual plans in rating area 2, covering El Paso and Teller counties. The other is what your electrical shop actually earns in its first year. That's revenue after paying for the truck, equipment, wire, materials, licensing and liability insurance. Your take-home profit during that first year will almost always be below what your old employer paid you.
This is where a lot of new electrical shop owners find themselves. If your projected household income qualifies for financial help, Connect for Health Colorado will generally give you the lowest premium because that assistance is available only there. Colorado also introduced Colorado Premium Assistance in 2026 for households earning below 400% of the federal poverty level. Qualifying households receive it automatically, without claiming it on their taxes. If your income later increases and you stop qualifying, you keep the assistance already received without repayment. Federal premium tax credits aren't the same. Higher-than-expected business earnings could mean repaying some federal assistance. Give an accurate income estimate and revise it as your business grows.
Next step: Let me know your group coverage's expiration date and your best first-year income projection. I'll calculate El Paso County plan prices after applying any assistance you qualify for.
Keeping a familiar pediatrician can matter more to a family than anything else on the plan. Before your contractor's coverage ends, make a list of your family's physicians and preferred hospital. El Paso County marketplace coverage is limited to HMOs and EPOs, so network membership determines whether nonemergency visits to those providers are covered. I'll verify every provider before we settle on a plan.
Next step: Message me the names of your family physician, pediatrician and preferred hospital. I'll compare their network participation across all El Paso County plans.
Maybe your electrical calendar fills up just months after opening. Once household earnings exceed the assistance limits, every El Paso County marketplace option comes at full price. That's when I'd compare a medically underwritten nationwide PPO for a healthy family. Everyone completes health questions, and the insurer can approve coverage, approve it while excluding a previous condition, or reject the application. Healthy households can often beat full marketplace premiums, while using the same nationwide network around Colorado Springs or while visiting back east. If someone has an ongoing medical condition, I need to know. Eligibility for private coverage depends on those specifics, and I'll evaluate both routes.
Next step: Send me everyone's ages and the doctors your family uses. I'll compare a nationwide PPO premium against the unsubsidized El Paso County rates.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
According to Colorado's Division of Insurance, the loss of job-based health insurance opens a 60-day period for individual plan enrollment.
No PPO was offered in 2026. All 67 El Paso County marketplace medical plans were either HMOs or EPOs.
No repayment is required for assistance already received if higher income later makes you ineligible.
El Paso and Teller counties make up rating area 2, where the Division of Insurance authorized a 9.7% rate increase.
Let me know when your group plan expires, who needs coverage, which Colorado Springs doctors your family sees, and your projected first-year profit. I'll compare a nationwide PPO with the available El Paso County plans.
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