If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. PJ O'Rourke Choosing to expand Medicaid is like deciding to marry for the sake of a dream honeymoon when disillusionment is the likely outcome. Fortunately, seven members of the Joint Appropriations Committee rescued Wyoming from a looming and ill-conceived ...

by Charles Katebi The director of Wyoming's Department of Health, Tom Forslund, recently sat down before the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) to make his plea for more spending. The biggest item by far on the agency's wish list was Medicaid Expansion, costing a whopping $268 million. How did he try selling such an expensive line item to the JAC...

by Charles Katebi Supporters of Medicaid Expansion, including Governor Matt Mead, express an unwavering belief that the federal government will actually fund this entitlement as promised. Yet Washington's promises often become unfunded mandates. Even before the end of this year it is likely that Congress will cut federal funding for Medicaid Expans...

by Charles Katebi Obamacare's supporters seem to believe that if you give patients insurance, doctors will treat them. But greater access to health insurance doesn't mean greater access to healthcare. As patients scour Obamacare's insurance exchange for coverage, they're finding fewer doctors accepting Obamacare's insurance as payment. And those th...

by Charles Katebi Medicaid's allies are gearing up their expansion drive for the 2016 budget session. As usual, they're trying to convince Wyomingites that they will save big if government spends more of their money. We've heard this story before. Governor Mead, Wyoming's Hospital Association and the Department of Health all claim that Wyoming's un...

by Charles Katebi Since Obamacare took effect in 2013, the cost of health insurance has exploded. Turns out it's very costly for the insurers themselves and some are paying the ultimate price. In early October, one of those insurers, WINhealth, announced it faced severe financial challenges and was leaving the Obamacare exchange. Just 11 days later...

by Charles Katebi With just a few weeks until open enrollment, WINhealth has decided to leave Wyoming's health insurance exchange. The insurer hoped that Obamacare's federal bailout fund would pay for its losses. However, it only paid insurers a fraction of what it promised. Wyoming legislators rejected Medicaid expansion last year because they wor...

by Charles Katebi No single provision of Obamacare has been more disastrous than Medicaid Expansion. It's cost taxpayers billions more than promised and hurt the very people it was intended to help. Now Governor Mead wants to try yet again to expand this ruinous government program in Wyoming. Following an event at an oil recovery facility in Rivert...

by Charles Katebi Wyomingites pays more for health insurance than residents of any other state. And thanks to Obamacare, we're about to pay a lot more. Starting in 2018, employer-based health plans that exceed $10,200 in premiums for individuals and $27,500 for families will be hit with a whopping 40 percent "Cadillac Tax." If you receive health in...

by Charles Katebi In a promising moment of bipartisan agreement, members of Wyoming's Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee began drafting legislation that will allow patients and physicians to contract directly with each other and escape our disastrously overregulated insurance system. This legislation will strengthen every Wyoming res...