Colorado § 10-16-1204 - Health insurance affordability enterprise - creation - powers and duties - assess and allocate enterprise fees and assessments.

§ 10-16-1204. Health insurance affordability enterprise - creation - powers and duties - assess and allocate enterprise fees and assessments.

(1) (a) There is hereby created in the division the Colorado health insurance affordability enterprise. The enterprise is and operates as a government-owned business within the division for the purpose of assessing and collecting the health insurance affordability fee from carriers that offer health benefit plans in the state and a special assessment on hospitals in the state and using and allocating the fee and assessment for the purposes specified in this part 12 in order to:

(I) Provide the following business services to carriers that pay the fee:

(A) Outreach and related work to increase enrollment in health benefit plans offered by carriers across the state;

(B) Increasing the number of individuals who purchase health benefit plans in the individual market by providing financial support to individuals to purchase private health insurance coverage;

(C) Funding the reinsurance program that offsets the costs carriers would otherwise pay for covering consumers with high medical costs;

(D) Improving the stability of the market throughout the state by providing consistent private health care coverage and reducing the movement of individuals from insured to uninsured status;

(E) Reducing provider cost shifting from the individual market and the uninsured to the group market; and

(F) Creating a healthier risk pool for all carriers by establishing a path for consistent coverage for individuals; and

(II) Provide the following business services to hospitals:

(A) Reducing the amount of uncompensated care provided by hospitals;

(B) Reducing the need of providers to shift costs of providing uncompensated care to other payers; and

(C) Expanding access to high-quality, affordable health care for low-income and uninsured Coloradans.

(b) (I) The enterprise constitutes an enterprise for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution so long as it retains the authority to issue revenue bonds and receives less than ten percent of its total revenues in grants, as defined in section 24-77-102 (7), from all Colorado state and local governments combined. So long as it constitutes an enterprise pursuant to this section, the enterprise is not a district for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution.

(II) The enterprise is hereby authorized to issue revenue bonds for the expenses of the enterprise, secured by revenues of the enterprise.

(2) The enterprise's primary powers and duties are:

(a) To assess and collect the fee specified in section 10-16-1205 (1)(a)(I);

(b) To assess and collect the special assessment on hospitals specified in section 10-16-1205 (1)(a)(II);

(c) To allocate money in the fund in accordance with section 10-16-1205 (2);

(d) To issue revenue bonds payable from the revenues and other available money of the enterprise pledged for their payment as authorized in section 10-16-1213;

(e) (I) To engage the services of third parties serving as contractors and consultants, including the division, for professional and technical assistance and advice and to supply other services related to the conduct of the affairs of the enterprise, without regard to the "Procurement Code", articles 101 to 112 of title 24. The enterprise shall encourage diversity in applications for contracts and shall generally avoid using single-source bids.

(II) The division shall provide office space and administrative staff to the enterprise pursuant to a contract entered into under this subsection (2)(e).

(f) To engage in outreach and related efforts to increase enrollment in health benefit plans across the state;

(g) To adopt and amend or repeal policies for the regulation of its affairs and the conduct of its business consistent with this part 12; and

(h) (I) To invest money in the fund, other than proceeds from the sale of bonds or earnings on such proceeds invested pursuant to section 10-16-1213 (2), without regard to the limitations set forth in section 24-36-103, 24-75-601.1, or 24-75-603.

(II) For purposes of investing the money in the fund, the enterprise may enter into contracts with private professional fund managers to provide expertise, technical support, and advice on investment market conditions. In seeking bids for such contracts, the enterprise shall employ standard public bidding practices, including the use of requests for information, requests for proposals, or any other standard vendor selection practices determined by the enterprise to be best suited for selecting an appropriate private professional fund manager.

(3) The enterprise shall exercise its powers and perform its duties as if the same were transferred to the division by a type 2 transfer, as defined in section 24-1-105.

Source: L. 2020: Entire part added, (SB 20-215), ch. 201, p. 989, § 1, effective June 30. L. 2026: (2)(d), (2)(f), and (2)(g) amended and (2)(h) added, (SB 26-178), ch. 298, p. 1644, § 2, effective June 2.