How the Wyoming Senate killed Medicaid expansion, again

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Senate Committee on Labor, Health and Social Services voted Wednesday to kill a House-sponsored effort at Medicaid expansion.

The 3-2 vote, which came after more than three hours of public testimony and debate, likely ends this year’s effort to close Wyoming’s “Medicaid gap.”

Expansion advocates argued that expansion would provided medical coverage for 24,000 uninsured Wyomingites, extended financial support to the state’s ailing hospital system and brought hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to Wyoming’s cash-strapped state government.

Wyoming Department of Health numbers support those assertions. According to DOH estimates, House Bill 162 – Medical treatment opportunity act, would have helped enroll anywhere between 13,000 and 38,000 people, lowered health insurance rates for private providers and helped to alleviate the more than $100 million in uncompensated care costs private hospitals eat on an annual basis.

Read more: https://www.wyofile.com/how-the-wyoming-senate-killed-medicaid-expansion-again/