Photo: Kim Monson Newsroom

How Colorado’s unenforced insurance mandate lands on drivers who pay

State Farm agent Roger Mangan told Kim Monson Show listeners that uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is now the single biggest line item in a typical premium. The reason traces back to a Colorado law that is on the books but rarely enforced.

Print Save as PDF

Kim Monson Newsroom June 22, 2026

Listen to this article

0:00 / 0:00

First American State Bank Colorado's Community Bank Learn More →

Here is the quiet injustice in how this works. You do the responsible thing, you buy the coverage the state demands, and then you pay again to protect yourself from the people who ignored the same law. A mandate that government refuses to enforce stops being a rule and becomes a tax on the conscientious, collected through your premium instead of at the Capitol. When roughly one in six Colorado drivers can skip the requirement without consequence, the cost does not disappear; it simply moves onto the bill of everyone who played by the rules. Roger Mangan is right to point people toward their legislators, because a law worth passing is a law worth enforcing. If the state cannot do that, it owes drivers an honest accounting of why they are paying twice.

— Kim Monson

DENVER — Colorado requires every driver to carry auto liability insurance, and it makes driving without it a crime. Yet insured Coloradans are increasingly footing the bill for drivers who break that law, paying for the uninsured through coverage on their own policies. That is the warning longtime Roger Mangan, a State Farm agent of more than 50 years, delivered in an interview on The Kim Monson Show.

The mechanism is uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, the part of a policy that pays the policyholder when an at-fault driver has no insurance or too little of it. “Essentially, you’re buying insurance in your policy for the uninsured driver out there in Colorado,” Mangan said on the show. He estimated that of a $1,000 six-month premium, roughly $300 to $400 goes to UM/UIM coverage, which he characterized as “probably today the biggest, largest cost in your total six-month premium.”

What the law actually requires

Colorado’s Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law makes coverage mandatory. Under C.R.S. 42-4-1409, no one may operate a motor vehicle on the state’s public highways without a complying policy in full force and effect. The minimum limits, set in C.R.S. 42-7-103, are $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more people in one accident, and $15,000 for property damage. Insurers refer to these limits as 25/50/15.

The penalties have teeth on paper. Driving uninsured is a class 1 misdemeanor traffic offense carrying a mandatory minimum fine of $500, which a court may cut in half if the driver shows proof of insurance has since been obtained. A second conviction within five years carries a non-suspendable minimum fine of $1,000. A court may also order at least 40 hours of community service, and the state Division of Motor Vehicles can suspend the driver’s license through a separate administrative process.

Why the cost shifts to the insured

The gap between the law and the road is wide. Nationally, more than one in seven drivers, or 15.4%, were uninsured in 2023, according to the Insurance Research Council, which found that one in three drivers were either uninsured or underinsured that year. The IRC attributes the rising numbers largely to deteriorating affordability as premiums climb. In Colorado specifically, an estimated 16.3% of drivers are on the road without a policy, according to ValuePenguin.

When one of those drivers causes a crash, the injured party often cannot collect. “If you don’t and you get hit by me and I don’t have coverage and you sue me, you can’t get compensation,” Mangan said. “So you go to your own policy, your uninsured motorist coverage.” The result is that the people who follow the rules absorb the cost of those who do not. “Because it isn’t [enforced], you end up paying for policies on people that don’t buy them.”

Enforcement and the funding question

Mangan’s diagnosis is that the law sits idle for lack of money and political will. He urged listeners to take the issue to the Capitol. “Call your legislator,” he said. “They’re the ones who are not providing enough money to execute the law that they put on the books.”

Colorado does operate an electronic verification system. The Colorado Motorist Insurance Identification Database, marketed as “Drive Insured,” requires insurers to report new and canceled auto policies weekly and gives law enforcement and the DMV a tool to flag vehicles whose insurance status is unknown, including at registration renewal. The penalty statute also directs that half of the fines collected from uninsured drivers flow back to the law enforcement agency that wrote the ticket, money the legislature intended to help fund highway supervision.

What no public record confirms is the size of the burden Mangan describes. Neither the IRC, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, nor the Colorado Division of Insurance publishes figures showing that UM/UIM is the largest component of a typical Colorado premium, so that characterization rests on Mangan’s professional experience. The broader trend behind his concern is documented: the IRC reports that auto insurance affordability deteriorated from 2021 through 2024 as carriers raised premiums, and it lists uninsured and underinsured motorists among the cost drivers pushing rates higher.

Support independent journalism

The reporting in this article draws on the work of 0 independent newsrooms. Local and state journalism is shrinking across the country. Subscribing, donating, or becoming a member is the most direct way to keep these outlets covering the stories that matter to Colorado.

Kim Monson Independent voice for liberty, free markets, Colorado, and America

Become a Member Contribute