Making Sense of Health Coverage Costs at Level Up Academy 2026
Health coverage is one of the biggest costs a small business carries, and it’s getting harder to predict. On Friday, October 23, Level Up Academy opens its sessions with a working conversation on what owners pay now, what options exist, and which policy changes are coming. We asked one of the speakers what small business owners should know before they walk in.
At a glance
Session: 10:30am to 12:00pm MT, Friday, October 23
Speaker: Isabel Cruz, Policy & Advocacy Director, Colorado Consumer Health Initiative
Where: History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway, Denver, or online
Cost: Free, with breakfast and lunch included in person
Small businesses and Colorado’s changing health landscape
10:30am to 12:00pm
This session covers the cost pressures owners are facing, the coverage options available now, and the policy shifts coming next. It’s also a working session, where attendees help shape our voice on healthcare.
Isabel Cruz, Policy & Advocacy Director at the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, says the first thing on owners’ radar should be federal cuts. “Harmful health care cuts from H.R.1 will leave an estimated 190,000+ Coloradans uninsured by 2027,” she told us, and those cuts “will push up costs for everyone else and threaten the financial viability of safety-net health care providers.”
Her answer to rising costs is reference-based pricing, a policy other states have used to rein in hospital and prescription drug charges. It “sets a reasonable ceiling for charges based on what it costs to deliver care, instead of the highest price the market can bear.”
For owners who offer coverage, or want to, the pressure runs one way: when care costs more, premiums follow.
Join us and other business owners like you
The day opens with a breakfast mixer at 9:00am and a welcome from Good Business Colorado leadership. Lunch and networking start at noon. In the afternoon, sessions cover AI in day-to-day work from 1:00 to 2:00pm and how communities set the terms for data centers from 2:00 to 3:00pm, and a closing session follows at 3:00pm. This year’s theme, “This is for the history makers,” is a nod to the venue and to the everyday business owners who have shaped Colorado’s communities.
Choose an in-person ticket (breakfast and lunch included), a virtual ticket (the link is emailed to you), or the member ticket if you belong to the Good Business Colorado Association.
Level Up Academy is Friday, October 23, 9:00am to 4:00pm MT, at History Colorado Center and online. Registration closes Thursday, October 22. Register here.