The number of Wyoming residents that purchased health insurance in the federal health insurance marketplace via the Affordable Care Act (ACA) doubled in 2014.
Of the 21,092 consumers who enrolled or reenrolled in the 2015 health insurance marketplace, 10,124 (or 48 percent) were new consumers.
Enroll Wyoming, a group dedicated to boosting federal enrollment in Wyoming, worked to educate the public on the specifics of the ACA, the benefits of enrolling and the consequences of not having insurance—namely, a tax penalty on the uninsured.
“I think it’s good that a lot of people are catching on,” Chris Corriveau, a marketplace navigator for Enroll Wyoming, said. “We don’t want people to have to pay the penalty or go uninsured.”
Tracy Brosius, operations director for Enroll Wyoming, said she believes the number of new enrollees will rise even higher now that yet-uninsured people have done their taxes and learned about the penalty the hard way.
“Lots of people didn’t realize this was going to affect them,” Brosius said. “They thought they didn’t qualify for it or didn’t realize there was a tax penalty. A lot of people are going to fill out their taxes and realize they have to pay a penalty.”
According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, “In Wyoming, 77 percent of individuals with a marketplace plan selection had the option of selecting a plan for $100 or less per month.”
Under the Affordable Care Act, residents without insurance are charged a penalty to cover the cost of this charity care.
“It helps to have people insured just because of the cost to hospitals,” Brosius said. “Charity care can raise taxes quite a bit.”
Greater numbers of people having insurance helps hospitals indirectly as well because people with insurance are more likely to visit a doctor before ailments become dire.
“People seek out earlier treatment when they’re insured than when they’re uninsured,” Brosius said. “What we have seen consistently, not just in Wyoming, but nationally, that we can prevent and catch chronic conditions much earlier.”
A special enrollment period is open now until the end of the month so that residents “who were unaware of, or didn’t understand the implications of the new requirement” can enroll for marketplace health insurance.
“We’re making efforts to spread education,” Corriveau said. “I think it’s helped.”
