Dive Brief:
- Wyoming's 2016 health exchange enrollment went up by 11% to 23,770 people, HHS data has shown.
- The largest increases occurred in the state's most rural counties, the Star Tribune noted, including Big Horn County enrollment rising 123% and Weston County rising 91%. High population counties also saw double digit increases, including Natrona County at 19% and Laramie County at 15%.
- The increase held even while Wyoming consumers lacked any options; for 2016 only Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming offered plans on the exchange when WINhealth shut down Dec. 31 2015, after learning federal assistance to insurers would be substantially lower than previously planned.
Dive Insight:
The loss of WINHealth was a significant hit to the state's ACA market, but re-enrollment of customers did not appear to pose an issue.
“We are very pleased about this, that we did not lose enrollment — even with the changes in the plans that were available for consumers,” Tracy Brosius of the Wyoming Institute of Population Health told the Star Tribune.
Much of the enrollment activity around the state is attributed to layoffs of workers in the oil, natural gas, and coal industries. The one enrollment drop, a 13% decrease in Fremont County, was likely tied to a federal ruling that mandated employer-based coverage for casino employees of the Northern Arapaho tribe, the Tribune reported, lowering demand in the county for exchange plans.
Further layoffs around the state that are too recent to have been reflected in the current stats are likely to later show a continued upward trend in exchange plan enrollment, Brosius said.
Wyoming has not expanded its Medicaid program, with GOP lawmakers having repeatedly voted it down despite efforts by Republican Gov. Matt Mead to push it through.