A plan to expand Medicaid for Wyoming’s Native American population has failed in the Wyoming House of Representatives.
A proposed bill would have allowed the state to go ahead with a demonstration program that was intended to help improve the health care of Native Americans.
Democrat Patrick Goggles of Fort Washakie was disappointed that the bill failed to get the 40 votes needed for it to move forward. But Goggles adds that 32 people voted for it which tells him that it could pass in the future.
“It’s a work in progress, just because we didn’t get the votes we needed today that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to move forward. We are going to continue to visit with the Department of Health about the possibility of a 115 demonstration project and get the information needed to move that process forward once it gets an approval.”
Goggles says the Wyoming House of Representatives is a conservative body and that makes it difficult to get support for this type of legislation.