Citizen’s Guide to Colorado Tier 0 Through Tier 5 Auto Insurance, MedPay, UM/UIM, and Why Disclosure Matters

The core correction

An uninsured driver will not have a roadside proof-of-insurance document at all. Colorado law requires insurers to provide a proof of insurance certificate or insurance identification card when a policy is issued or renewed. That document exists only in the insured world.

That is why a claimant cannot infer much from what is handed over at the scene. The proof-of-insurance card shows that a policy exists. It does not show the liability limits, it does not show whether MedPay or UM/UIM exists, and it does not show umbrella, excess, fleet, or commercial layers. Those coverage amounts live on the declarations page and in the policy documents, not on the roadside card.

Colorado’s fixed legal floor

Colorado’s minimum personal-auto liability package is a single fixed legal floor: $25,000 for bodily injury or death to one person, $50,000 for bodily injury or death to all persons in one accident, and $15,000 for property damage in one accident. Higher coverages may be purchased.

Colorado also requires $5,000 of MedPay unless the named insured rejects it in writing or in the same medium used for the application. If the insurer cannot prove a valid rejection, the policy is presumed to include that $5,000 MedPay layer.

Colorado requires insurers to offer UM/UIM in an amount equal to the policyholder’s bodily-injury liability limits unless the insured rejects or reduces that coverage. Colorado’s UM/UIM statute says that this coverage is in addition to legal liability coverage and covers the difference, if any, between legal liability coverage and the damages sustained, up to the UM/UIM coverage obtained. The amount available is not reduced by a setoff from liability insurance, MedPay, health insurance, or other UM/UIM insurance.

Tier 0 through Tier 5

For reform purposes, Colorado’s coverage world is easier to understand if it is organized into clear public-facing tiers.

Health insurance is not full injury compensation

This point must be stated clearly. Health insurance can help pay covered medical bills. Colorado’s own consumer explanation of MedPay is built around that idea: a person may have health insurance and still face deductibles, copayments, and other significant medical costs after a crash.

But health insurance is not a substitute for liability insurance, UM/UIM, or a civil damages claim. Colorado statutes defining noneconomic loss recognize categories such as pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, physical impairment or disfigurement, and impairment of the quality of life. Health insurance does not compensate those losses.

This is exactly why thin liability and thin MedPay products are so dangerous. A person without robust health coverage can burn through MedPay almost immediately. A person with health insurance may still see the bills paid while receiving no compensation for pain and suffering, permanent impairment, wage loss, or diminished quality of life unless liability or UM/UIM coverage responds.

MedPay and the package problem

Colorado law clearly fixes only one MedPay number: $5,000, unless rejected. The same statute also says nothing in the MedPay section limits other coverage amounts being made available by an insurer.

That means the public should understand Colorado MedPay this way:

• $5,000 MedPay is the statutory default floor, not an adequate trauma-care solution.
• Higher MedPay amounts may be offered and purchased.
• In the market, households that buy stronger BI packages often also buy stronger MedPay, but that indexing is a marketing and underwriting pattern, not a statewide statutory ladder.

The higher MedPay levels are presented here as common market examples for public understanding. They are not statutory requirements.

How UM/UIM is measured in a Colorado fault state

Colorado is a comparative-fault state. If the injured person’s negligence is not as great as the negligence of the person against whom recovery is sought, damages are reduced proportionately. If the injured person’s negligence is equal to or greater than the negligence of that person, the claim is barred.

For a victim trying to understand UM/UIM, the measuring sequence is:

1. Determine total bodily injury damages.
2. Reduce those damages for the victim’s own percentage of fault, if any.
3. Measure the at-fault driver’s third-party liability limits.
4. Measure any remaining unpaid bodily injury damages against the victim’s UM/UIM limits.
5. Remember that Colorado UM/UIM does not cover damage to the insured’s own vehicle. That is a property-damage or collision/comprehensive issue.

Tier comparison table for a Colorado bodily-injury claim

This table is designed to show the package logic, not to promise payment. Real recovery is always limited by provable damages, available policies, comparative fault, and the policy terms that govern the claim.

All-occupant compression table

Split-limit packages create a second misunderstanding. The first number is not automatically available to every injured occupant. Once multiple people are injured, the per-accident cap compresses what each person can actually receive.

Equal-share illustrations only. Real outcomes depend on injury severity, available policies, settlement order, and litigation posture.

Why disclosure is the only fair result

Colorado requires an insurer, within 30 days after a proper written request, to disclose the insurer name, the names of insured parties as shown on the declarations page, the liability limits, and a copy of each known relevant policy, including potentially relevant umbrella or excess coverage. The statute imposes a $100-per-day penalty after day 30, plus attorney fees and costs.

The Division of Insurance also makes clear that the disclosure packet is not the same thing as the roadside proof card. The process is designed to answer the questions the proof card cannot answer.

Why Colorado matters to western-state reform

Colorado gives the western reform group a working model because it recognizes that insurance information is not a private tactical luxury. It is the measuring tool for settlement, UIM triggering, and rational claim handling.

Across the West, the same pattern keeps repeating:

• minimum liability is sold because it is cheaper;
• MedPay stays thin unless the buyer actively purchases more;
• UM/UIM is sold as protection against underinsured drivers;
• the claimant then needs to know the real third-party stack to measure whether the UM/UIM benefit is actually in play;
• without disclosure, the claimant is pressured either to settle blind or to sue blind.

Authorities and source links

• C.R.S. § 10-4-604.5 — Proof of insurance certificate or insurance identification card Shows that the roadside proof document is a certificate, card, or other authorized proof medium issued when insurance exists.
• Colorado General Assembly — Mandatory Automobile Insurance in Colorado Confirms Colorado’s minimum liability package is 25/50/15 and that higher coverages may be purchased.
• C.R.S. § 10-4-635 — Medical payments coverage Establishes the default 5k MedPay rule, the rejection requirement, and the fact that nothing in the statute limits other coverage amounts being made available by an insurer.
• Colorado General Assembly — Optional Automobile Insurance Coverage Explains that UM/UIM must be offered up to BI limits unless waived or reduced, that UM/UIM does not cover the insured’s vehicle, and that MedPay supplements health insurance and may be purchased at additional levels.
• C.R.S. § 10-4-609 — Insurance protection against uninsured motorists Contains the legally-entitled-to-recover language, the add-on structure, and the no-setoff rule for liability insurance, MedPay, health insurance, and other UM/UIM insurance.
• C.R.S. § 13-21-111 — Comparative negligence as measure of damages Sets Colorado’s comparative-fault framework.
• C.R.S. § 13-64-302 — Definition of direct noneconomic loss or injury Useful statutory source for the principle that tort damages can include pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, physical impairment or disfigurement, and impairment of quality of life.
• C.R.S. § 10-3-1117 — Required automobile policy disclosures Requires disclosure within 30 days and provides the statutory penalty structure.
• Colorado DOI — Automobile Insurance Liability Policy Disclosure Requests Explains the current Colorado request process and the structure of the disclosure packet.
• GEICO — Medical payments coverage Public insurer page illustrating that MedPay is sold as a selectable dollar-limit product rather than only as a single default.
• Progressive — Medical payments coverage Public insurer page describing MedPay as a product commonly sold in different dollar amounts.
• Progressive Commercial — Combined single limit Public commercial-insurance explainer showing how commercial auto often uses a combined single limit, such as $1 million.
• Travelers — Commercial umbrella insurance Public carrier source explaining that commercial umbrella is commonly sold in $1 million increments above underlying coverage.