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REPORT: Distance to care and lack of transportation prevent Wyomingites from accessing healthcare
For many Wyoming residents, going out of state for healthcare is a familiar, if troublesome and expensive exercise. For folks without reliable transportation, huge distances to doctors can prove a serious threat when they need medical help.
REPORT: Sputtering mental health efforts in Wyoming are not enough
The problems of mental illness, suicide, and substance abuse have plagued Wyoming communities for decades. Lawmakers have taken baby steps in recent years to address the issues, but according to most state residents, much more must be done.
REPORT: Wyoming’s sky-high insurance and treatment costs are residents’ number one healthcare concern
Nearly half of people who responded to Better Wyoming surveys named affordability the number one healthcare issue for them and their families. Meanwhile, a new report confirms that the cost of care in Wyoming is nearly the highest in the nation. While other states enact laws to increase price transparency and decrease uninsured rates, Wyoming lawmakers have done little.
REPORT: Wyoming’s physician shortage is a serious concern
Everybody knows that Wyoming is a rural state, and so we can’t expect to have every kind of specialist. But we should be able to expect better than what we’ve got.
Stingy lawmakers leave Wyoming stranded
Dozens of snowplow driver positions remain vacant because the Wyoming Legislature refuses to fund WYDOT enough to pay competitive wages. Thanks to their stinginess, we can all expect closed roads as winter approaches.
Can Wyoming care for its aging population?
A new report demonstrates the healthcare and other challenges Wyoming’s seniors face, showing a rapidly aging state without the infrastructure needed to care for our 65+ residents. But the report also offers boatloads of data that can help policymakers find solutions.
Fremont Co. EMS workers show the power and benefits of organized labor
Tired of dismal pay and awful conditions, workers for the company that provides ambulance services to Fremont County organized and took action. Their success winning better pay and jobs can be an inspiration for others around Wyoming.
SAVE OUR CHILDREN: Wyo. lawmakers allow thousands of kids to lose healthcare coverage
Wyoming lawmakers—many of whom often claim to want to “save our children”—are standing by as a bureaucratic boondoggle strips 7,500 kids of their Medicaid health insurance.
Book-banning officials begin removing Wyoming public agency leaders
Wyoming’s public sector has struggled to retain quality workers in recent years as lawmakers have slashed wages and the political climate has grown toxic. Now, officials driven by radical religious agendas are removing experienced local leaders, including a longtime public library director and an award-winning school superintendent.
Why is getting support for public preschool in Wyoming like pulling teeth?
The benefits of preschool are clear, but middle-class and rural Wyoming families face huge hurdles enrolling their kids. Most states have public preschool, but not Wyoming—and trying to encourage lawmakers who are busy arguing over hot-button national issues to do something about it is an exercise in frustration and disappointment.
“Voucher” proposal would give Wyo. parents money to enroll children in private, religious schools
So-called “school vouchers” or “education savings accounts” hand over taxpayer money to parents who pull their kids out of public schools and instead enroll them in private, religious, or home schools. The Legislature’s Joint Education Committee will hear such a proposal this week, despite the fact that the Wyoming Constitution prohibits public money from being spent at religious institutions or given to schools that have zero oversight.
Cheyenne Starbucks baristas poised to unionize for better schedules and workplace
Workers at a Starbucks in Cheyenne will vote on Monday whether to join more than 340 other stores across the U.S. and become the first unionized location in Wyoming. The baristas allege a hostile workplace and erratic scheduling, but also are part of a new uptick of organized labor in Wyoming.
Wyoming barriers: Young families struggle to find childcare
More than one third of Wyoming’s population lives in a “childcare desert,” and the cost for those who can find it can equal a second mortgage. While other states take steps to address this nationwide issue, Wyoming lawmakers drag their feet finding solutions.
Wyoming barriers: The high cost of neglecting preschool
Early childhood education sets kids up for success. Children who go to preschool do better in K-12—requiring less help and driving down overall education costs—and they go on to earn more and require less government assistance. But two-thirds of Wyoming kids don’t attend preschool, and the state does not invest a dime in it, creating an early-life hurdle for many children that is both costly and difficult to overcome.
Wyoming barriers: Suicidal students don’t learn much
In the first of a three-part series on barriers to opportunity that young people and families face in our state, Better Wyoming looks at the Legislature’s recent efforts—and failures—to address the growing problem of mental illness among Wyoming K-12 students.