Wyoming misses out on millions of dollars the federal government offers us.
For God and Country, we want More Government!

We, The Government, are Wasteful, Fraudulent, and Abusive: Therefore we must GROW government and increase Waste, Fraud, and Abuse!

In a guest editorial, Wyoming's premiere legislators lay out their rationale behind Senate File 50, which would create a new branch of government to help inform on people accused of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Let's just stay the course with coal, shall we?

Gordon’s proposed budget will keep Wyoming shackled to the fossil fuel industries

State tax revenue has recovered from last year’s bust, and Wyoming is receiving substantial federal pandemic funds. But instead of investing in education, infrastructure, and healthcare—things Wyoming residents need right now and that could help develop our economy in the long term—Gov. Gordon wants to pad the state’s savings account and prop up coal.
Ninety percent of the Department of Health's budget funds community health centers.

Public health cuts hit communities across Wyoming

The Legislature cut more than $100 million from the Wyoming Department of Health’s budget this session, including tens of millions from mental health and substance abuse programs while the state is experiencing a suicide crisis.
Wyoming's trust funds contain more than $20 billion.

Wyoming's "budget crisis" is fake

Even as fossil fuel tax revenues plummet, Wyoming remains a rich state with no urgent reason to cut public services from struggling and vulnerable people. It also just received more than a billion dollars in federal aid. Why then, are Wyoming lawmakers eager to cut public funding? Because they want to.
Wyoming's rural hospitals struggle to care for people like Beverly Kolacny, who lives on a ranch near Powell. Medicaid expansion would provide resources to rural hospitals and clinics in Wyoming for better healthcare.

Wyoming’s rural hospitals (and communities) would benefit from Medicaid expansion

Expanding Medicaid would help Wyoming’s struggling rural hospitals offset state budget cuts, provide mental health treatment, and attract and retain physicians to provide better services.
All people in Wyoming would see the financial benefits of expanded Medicaid.

Expanding Medicaid would drive down people’s healthcare costs across Wyoming

When hospitals treat people who can’t afford to pay, they pass off those losses to everyone else, raising medical costs and insurance premiums statewide. This “uncompensated care” amounts to 6 percent of Wyoming hospitals’ total expenses. Medicaid expansion would cover those costs instead, helping hospitals and driving down the price of healthcare for everyone.
Other states' budgets have seen decreases in healthcare spending as a result of expanding Medicaid.

Medicaid expansion would lower Wyoming’s state healthcare spending

The State of Wyoming would pay for 10 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid—roughly $9 million the first year. But other states’ experiences have shown that savings from the program more than offset the costs.
Expanding Medicaid would provide healthcare to tens of thousands of low-income Wyomingites.

Revenue Committee votes to sponsor Wyoming Medicaid expansion bill during 2020 Legislative session

The committee's support—and Wyoming's worsening budget situation—gives Medicaid expansion the best shot it's had in years.
With few other viable options for revenue, that big pot of Medicaid expansion money is looking better and better.

Revenue Committee to consider non-tax proposal to bring hundreds of millions of public dollars to Wyoming

A bill to expand Medicaid would help close the state’s sizeable budget shortfall (and it would help poor people get healthcare, too).
Wyoming misses out on millions of dollars the federal government offers us.

Wyoming lawmakers have a “cultural bias” against accepting federal funds

When times are good, no one questions whether the Legislature’s refusal to accept federal funding is wise. But as Wyoming’s budget problems continue, those questions are beginning to arise.