The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the federal share for a 24-month period after the state extends coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that Wyoming’s budget would see a net gain of $30 million over a two-year period if the state expanded Medicaid.² Approximately 15,200 uninsured nonelderly adults, or 28 percent of the state’s uninsured adult population, would gain health insurance.³
This fact sheet examines which workers and industries would benefit from expansion of Medicaid coverage.4 The top sectors employing low-wage uninsured workers in Wyoming are hospitality and retail, accounting for more than half (57.1 percent) of those working without insurance (see Table 1). Within these industries, the top occupation types are food preparation and serving, and sales which encompass 39.7 percent of Wyoming’s uninsured low-wage workers (see Table 2).
Endnotes
¹For more information on the provisions of the law, see E. Park and S. Corlette, “American Rescue Plan Act: Health Coverage Provisions Explained” (Washington DC: Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and Center on Health Insurance Reform, March 2021), available at https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2021/03/11/american-rescue-plan-act-health-coverage-provisions-explained/.
²R. Rudowitz, B. Corallo, and R. Garfield, “New Incentive for States to Adopt the ACA Medicaid Expansion: Implications for State Spending” (Washington DC: Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2021), available at https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/new-incentive-for-states-to-adopt-the-aca-medicaid-expansion-implications-for-state-spending/.
³Kaiser Family Foundation, “Who Could Medicaid Reach with Expansion in Wyoming?” (Washington DC: Kaiser Family Foundation, February 2021), available at https://files.kff.org/attachment/fact-sheetmedicaid-expansion-WY
[See our full list of Low-Wage Uninsured Worker State Profiles here.]
