Colorado Travel Insurance Regulations Take Effect

New law sets industry standards and establishes consumer protections for Centennial State travelers.

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content
  • 10+ years in insurance and personal finance content

  • 30+ years in media, PR, and content creation

Evelyn leads Insurify’s content team. She’s passionate about creating empowering content to help people transform their financial lives and make sound insurance-buying decisions.

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MacKenzie Korris
MacKenzie KorrisInsurance Copy Editor

MacKenzie Korris is an insurance copy editor with years of experience in print and digital media. He strives to craft actionable, inclusive copy that fosters smart decision-making through reader autonomy. He has a journalism degree from Saint Louis University.

Published August 6, 2024 at 12:00 PM PDT | Reading time: 2 minutes

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Colorado residents may find their summer vacations a bit more relaxing this year. The state’s new regulations for travel insurance take effect Aug. 7.

The Travel Insurance Model Act, signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis in April, applies to travel insurance that covers Colorado residents and any travel insurance company doing business in the state. The act implements multiple consumer protections, including a refund requirement, prohibition of opt-out tactics, and disclosure requirements for policy exclusions.

New regulations

Colorado’s legislation largely follows a travel insurance model proposed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The act defines travel insurance as coverage for personal, planned travel that covers:

  • Interruption or cancellation of a trip

  • Lost baggage or personal effects

  • Damage to accommodations or rental vehicles

  • Health coverage for illness, accident, disability, or death while traveling

  • Emergency evacuation

  • Return of a traveler’s remains to their home country

Under the new legislation, travel insurance companies must disclose if a policy excludes a pre-existing health condition, and use forms, policies, certificates of insurance, and other documentation that follow the legislation’s requirements. Insurers must also provide full refunds for canceled policies, as long as the covered trip hasn’t begun and the policyholder hasn’t filed a claim.

Travel insurers can no longer market blanket travel insurance coverage as free and can’t require travelers to deselect coverage in order to opt out of buying it.

How travel insurance works

Generally, several types of travel insurance are available: travel (or trip) cancellation, travel medical and major medical insurance, emergency medical evacuation/repatriation coverage, accidental death and dismemberment, baggage loss, and cancel-for-any-reason (CFAR) policies, according to the NAIC.

But many travel insurance policies have specific exclusions that consumers might not realize. For example, policies often exclude trip cancellations or interruptions that occur due to a foreseeable or expected event. That exclusion meant many people who had to cancel trips because they caught COVID-19 during the pandemic had their travel insurance claims denied.

What’s next?

The new legislation also sets ground rules for who can sell travel insurance, the type of licensing they must have, and penalties for travel insurance producers who violate the law. Regulations take effect on Aug. 7.

Evelyn Pimplaskar
Evelyn PimplaskarEditor-in-Chief, Director of Content

Evelyn Pimplaskar is Insurify’s director of content. With 30-plus years in content creation – including 10 years specializing in personal finance – Evelyn’s done everything from covering volatile local elections as a beat reporter to building fintech content libraries from the ground up.

Before joining Insurify, she was editor-in-chief at Credible, where she launched and developed the lending marketplace’s media partnership’s content initiative and managed the restructuring of the editorial team to enhance content production efficiency. Formerly, as tax editor for Credit Karma, Evelyn built a library of more than 300 educational articles on federal and state taxes, achieving triple-digit year-over-year growth in e-files from organic search.

Her early career included work as a content marketer, vice president and managing officer of a boutique public relations agency, chief copy editor for 14 weekly Forbes publications, reporting for large and mid-sized daily newspapers, and freelancing for the Associated Press.

Evelyn is passionate about creating personal finance content that distills complex topics into relatable, easy-to-understand stories. She believes great content helps empower readers with the information they need to make important personal finance decisions.

MacKenzie Korris
Edited byMacKenzie KorrisInsurance Copy Editor
MacKenzie Korris
MacKenzie KorrisInsurance Copy Editor

MacKenzie Korris is an insurance copy editor with years of experience in print and digital media. He strives to craft actionable, inclusive copy that fosters smart decision-making through reader autonomy. He has a journalism degree from Saint Louis University.