by Private health insurers that provide coverage in Colorado will be required to fully cover abortion care starting in January 2025 under a law passed by the Colorado Legislature in 2023.
Senate Bill 23-189 would require private health insurance to fully cover the cost of abortions starting in 2025. Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the bill into law as part of a package of abortion-related protections.
The law also requires insurance plans to cover medication abortions, contraception, vasectomies and treatment of sexually transmitted infections without copays. There is an exception for employers for whom abortion conflicts with religious beliefs. The law also provided an exception for public employers, but that could change following the passage by Colorado voters of Amendment 79, which enshrines the right to abortion in the Colorado Constitution and will allow employers in state and local governments also reimburse abortion care.
The amendment will not affect implementation of the 2023 law, but abortion rights advocates want Colorado lawmakers to pass legislation requiring similar coverage for public employees and Medicaid recipients when the General Assembly convenes next year.
Kiera Hatton Sena, policy director of the Colorado-based reproductive rights group Cobalt, said there is no other medical procedure that insurers won’t cover “based solely on ideological means,” and SB-189’s requirements show that “reproductive health care is health care.” ”
“Everyone should have access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care, and so what this really does is level the playing field so that reproductive health care is not just for the wealthy and those with resources,” said Hatton Sena.
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State Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Democrat from Littleton who sponsored the bill, said the bill will close gaps related not only to access to abortion, but also to STD treatment and family planning.
“We strongly believe that reproductive health care is just one essential part of any primary and preventive care,” said Cutter. “That has remained out of reach for many Coloradans, and so this bill simply aims to address that.”
Jack Teter, regional director of government affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, noted that the law also stipulates that a person does not have to pay their deductible to be covered for abortion care. He estimated that well over a million Coloradans will now have full coverage of abortion care under the new law.
“Many people go all year without meeting their deductibles, and so even though many people in theory might have had insurance for abortion care, in practice that coverage would very rarely have been in effect,” Teter said.
All insurance plans regulated by the Colorado Division of Insurance fully cover abortion. The bill included language requiring individual and small group insurance policies to cover abortion, as long as the state received permission from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave the state the approval in July.
Teter said people who work for large companies may have health insurance regulated by the federal government, so the new policy would not apply to them. A health insurance card must have “CODOI” written on it if it is regulated by the state, Teter said.
‘Not something people plan to do’
State Rep. Lorena Garcia, a Democrat from Adams County and another sponsor of SB-189, said it’s important that people no longer have to purchase an additional rider if they want abortion covered by their health insurance.
“Who looks at insurance and says, ‘Oh, I might get an abortion, I’m going to get an abortion rider’?” Garcia said. “Nobody does that because it’s not something people plan to do. It’s a big difference because abortion care is something that many people ultimately need. It’s like, no one plans to have a heart attack, but sometimes they do.”
“I am pleased that we are finally seeing the implementation of a reduction in economic barriers to abortion care,” Garcia added.
Teter said that 93% of patients PPRM has helped in Colorado so far in 2024 have paid out of pocket for abortion care, even though the organization accepts most insurance companies. This includes people whose insurance does not cover abortion, government workers whose insurance does not cover abortion, and people who do not have health insurance.
“Being able to use insurance will be a game-changer for our patients, especially those who have to worry about making ends meet and choosing between groceries or rent and access to the care they need,” Teter said. “We pay our premiums every month, and we count on our health insurance to be there for us when we need access to health care.”
Insurance coverage for abortion care will also ensure that fewer people need financial assistance to access abortion, Teter said, so abortion funds can direct a greater share of their funding to people who travel from out of state or who don’t have insurance.
The ban on government funding for abortion is gone
Teter said PPRM’s top priority entering the 2025 legislative session is implementing insurance coverage for Medicaid recipients and government employees.
Garcia said she “absolutely” sees the Legislature pursuing such legislation as part of the implementation of Amendment 79 in 2025.
Hatton Sena said the earliest it would expect public reporting would be July 1, 2025, although it could take longer given the tight budget the state will be working with next year.
“Knowing that we are in a difficult fiscal year, I think we just have to recognize that it may have to be spread over two years, but certainly not further,” Hatton Sena said. “The voters were so clear that they wanted this, so I think this should be a priority for the state legislature.”
Although newly elected Republican President Donald Trump said he would not support a federal abortion ban during the campaign, there are still concerns about how his administration will target abortion access given a Republican trifecta in Washington DC. Anti-abortion activist groups want to end other federal and state protections while vastly expanding restrictions on reproductive health care.
Although Colorado enshrines the right to abortion in its constitution, a federal abortion ban would override state protections.
“There are a lot of different terrible ways they can approach the question of how they want to use the federal government to restrict or ban access to abortion care,” Teter said of the new Trump administration.
Hatton Sena said there is no way to predict what Trump and the federal government might do, but that access to abortion during the election was “wildly popular across the country.”
“I say bring it,” Garcia said.
Cutter said Colorado officials will “continue to do everything we can to protect access” to abortion in the state.
“That’s a personal freedom,” she said. “And protecting that access to reproductive health care, and abortion care in particular, saves lives.”
This story originally appeared in the Colorado Newsline, a sister publication of the Florida Phoenix.
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