Wyoming Health Insurance
Wyoming residents are seeing changes to health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. According to a December 2012 Kaiser Family Foundation profile of Wyoming health insurance, Gov. Matt Mead announced the state would default to using the federal marketplace. Wyoming is one of 21 states that chose not to expand Medicaid coverage.
The Wyoming Department of Insurance maintains an Affordable Care Act resource section with helpful consumer information. You are free to register during open enrollment and sign up at the federal health insurance marketplace that is located at HealthCare.gov.
From there, you can find out if you and your family qualifies for federal subsidies to offset plans purchased on the marketplace, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, called CHIP. Wyoming residents can also find local assistance from navigators and brokers at Wyoming211.
Do you qualify for a Wyoming health insurance subsidy?
According to a January 2014 Kaiser Family Foundation report, 48 percent of the formerly uninsured in Wyoming qualify for some type of assistance. Typically, people who have access to other affordable health insurance will not qualify for assistance.
These are a few ways you can get help paying for health insurance in Wyoming:
- Typically, eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP is determined using 2014 poverty level guidelines, and eligibility for subsidies is determined using 2013 guidelines.
- People with income between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level may qualify for a subsidy. This would be between $23,550 and $94,200 for a family of four and between $11,490 and $45,960 for an individual.
- Medicaid eligibility for nondisabled adults is limited to parents with incomes below 56 of the federal poverty level, or about $13,355 a year for a family of four.
- Children from Wyoming families with income less than 205 percent of the poverty level, or about $48,890 for a family of four, might qualify for CHIP.
If you earn too much money to qualify for a Wyoming health insurance subsidy, you can still purchase a private marketplace plan. Qualified Wyoming medical insurance plans must provide certain mandatory benefits and cannot discriminate against you based on your pre-existing medical conditions.
Marketplace health insurance plans in Wyoming
These companies offer qualified plans in the Wyoming marketplace:
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wyoming
- WINhealth Partners
Wyoming health and coverage statistics
Wyoming population (2013): 582,658
Population 65 and older (2012): 13.1 percent
Life expectancy (2010): 78.3 years
Number of Medicaid beneficiaries (2012): 66,900
Number of Medicare beneficiaries (2012): 70,700
Estimated number of uninsured residents (2012): 94,500
Overall state health ranking (2014): 17
Sources: Kaiser Family Foundation, U.S. Census Bureau, America’s Health Rankings 2014 report.
Wyoming health insurance resources
Federal marketplace: https://www.healthcare.gov/
Department of Insurance: http://doi.wyo.gov/
Kaiser Family Foundation: http://kff.org/tag/wyoming/
