Healthcare in the Cowboy State is about to get costlier and less accessible.
Enroll Wyoming announced this week it is scaling back after losing the majority of its funding earlier this year. The move was expected for the federally-funded group that offers free guidance to those looking at health insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.
In a press release, the nonprofit said it had lost 90% of its federally funded budget, with cuts bringing its $1.5 million budget down to $150,000. As a result, its 10 person staff is dwindling down to one full-time and one part-time employee.
Enroll Wyoming will still exist to help people get on the marketplace, just with less capacity.
“We're still going to be doing our best to answer questions,” Marketing Director Caleb Smith said. “But our ability to meet people one-on-one and in person, [where] we're there in the same room setting with you, that's largely going away.”
The funding cuts mean Smith and most of his colleagues are out of a job this week when the federal grant money dries up.
Mountain Health Co-Op out, UnitedHealthcare in
The navigators are going away at a time when Wyoming is seeing a shuffle in which insurance options exist on the exchange.
Earlier this month, Mountain Health Co-op, which covers Montana and Idaho, announced it would be pulling out of Wyoming.
That means the 46,643 Wyomingites — and 3,514 Teton County residents — on the marketplace for the 2025 coverage year have different options if they plan on renewing marketplace plans when the open enrollment window begins Nov. 1. Of those, 631 signed up for new coverage and 2,883 re-enrolled for 2025, Smith said in an email.
Smith acknowledged that a newcomer to the Wyoming marketplace will help address the void but still has its drawbacks.
“UnitedHealthcare just entered the Wyoming marketplace this past year with limited offerings [that] don't necessarily offer the same things that Blue Cross Blue Shield [has] and Mountain Health Co-Op had,” Smith said.
Of the two marketplace providers in Wyoming for the upcoming enrollment cycle, both plan to raise costs.
Blue Cross Blue Shield requested a 20.7% rate increase this year and UnitedHealthcare 29.1%, according to Smith. Both increases are pending approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with new rates coming as soon as October.
Overall, healthcare costs are on the rise
Health insurance is already relatively pricey in the Cowboy State, ranked 49th in affordability and accessibility in a 2023 study from The Commonwealth Fund. Wyoming never expanded under Obamacare and many of its small rural hospitals are at risk of closing, which Smith said with its spread out population makes the state less enticing for insurers.
Healthcare costs in Wyoming are expected to worsen. There are several reasons exchange plans are expected to see price hikes.
Experts first point to a likely surge in premiums after a federal subsidy expires at the end of 2025.
KFF predicts enhanced premiums across marketplace products will nearly double as a result, without Congress acting to extend it before the end of the year.
That’s on top of Congress passing the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, which critics say will exacerbate healthcare disparities and raise healthcare costs. Polls show that Republicans use the marketplace at a higher rate than Democrats.
Baseline tax credits for qualifying families will continue, however, even if the enhanced premium subsidies end, Smith said.
Altogether, the cuts to resources like Enroll Wyoming and rising healthcare costs nationwide means less help for Wyomingites navigating health insurance options and a more expensive healthcare landscape on the horizon, according to Smith.
