CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Nearly 12,000 people from Wyoming have signed up for health insurance through the state’s federal health care exchange, more than the state expected.
The Casper Star-Tribune (https://bit.ly/SepR7M) reported that Wyoming Insurance Commissioner Tom Hirsig told members of the Legislature’s Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee on Monday that he expected 7,000 or 8,000 people to sign up.
“I’m surprised, frankly, that there’s this many,” he said during the committee’s meeting at Casper College.
It’s not known yet how many of the people who signed up for coverage previously had insurance.
A study done two years ago found that about 83,000 state residents didn’t have insurance. Hirsig said the state insurance department will survey Wyomingites about whether they have health coverage to help it understand the impact of the Affordable Care Act over the next five or six years.
Wyoming is among 36 states that opted to have the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services run its health insurance exchange under the new law. It offers the public an Internet site to shop for approved insurance plans.
Wyoming also joined with other states in an unsuccessful challenge to the constitutionality of the health care law.
Cynthia Nunley of Casper said most of the people she helped sign up for health insurance didn’t have insurance before and credited women who have dragged skeptical husbands to enrollment seminars for helping to boost enrollment. She said some may have opted to use the exchange because they stood to save money or receive government subsidies and others may have been forced to use it after losing their previous health insurance.
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
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