CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Gov. Matt Mead is allowing a bill to put up roughly $2.5 million to subsidize hospitals in the state to become law without his signature.
Mead on Wednesday released a letter that he wrote this week to Wyoming Secretary of State Edward Murray expressing his dissatisfaction with the hospital-funding bill.
Mead had told lawmakers at the start of the legislative session that wrapped up last week that he wanted them to approve expanding the federal Medicaid system in the state. He said expanding the federal program would help hospitals in the state address reduce the roughly $200 million a year in uncompensated care they are spending by treating uninsured people.
However, lawmakers ultimately rejected Medicaid expansion, turning their backs on more than $100 million a year in federal funding that would have extended health insurance coverage to 17,600 low-income adults. Many lawmakers said they don’t trust federal promises to continue Medicaid funding.
In his letter to Murray, Mead stated that the hospital funding bill creates two funds to help them address the issues of uncompensated care and limited cash reserves.
“Wyoming must work to address a number of health care issues,” Mead stated. “These include the high cost of care, the estimated 17,000 uninsured who fall in the gap, and those hospitals with limited reserves. (The hospital funding bill) does not solve those problems. It addresses only one of multiple issues - and only in a superficial way.”
Sen. Ray Peterson, R-Cowley, sponsored the hospital bill and said Wednesday that he shares many of Mead’s concerns that it doesn’t go far enough.
“He’s spot-on with those concerns that this is a bigger problem than this amount is going to solve,” Peterson said of Mead.
Peterson said the Legislature’s appropriations and labor, health and social services committees need to make the effort in the interim before the Legislature convenes early next year to come up with long-term solutions.
Peterson originally called for $10 million for the hospital funding. That was cut to roughly $2.5 million.
“The message that we tried to send with this bill is that we understand and comprehend that there is charity care and bed debt that the hospitals are incurring that Medicaid expansion would have helped address,” Peterson said. “But even Medicaid expansion wasn’t the answer. It might have been a better answer, but it wasn’t the complete answer.”
Peterson said it’s not possible to say until the hospitals apply for funding how much each will get.
Under the bill, five critical-access hospitals will get a share of roughly $500,000, with none getting more than $200,000. The hospitals are in Powell, Thermopolis, Sundance, Basin and Newcastle.
Of the remaining $2 million, two-thirds will go to 16 critical-access hospitals around the state based on their share of charity care costs. One third of the funding will go to hospitals that have more than 25 beds.
The Wyoming Hospital Association as well as various business associations in the state had pressed for Medicaid expansion, saying it offered the best way to address uncompensated care and would benefit the state’s economy.
Eric Boley, president of the hospital association, said Wednesday that he supports Mead’s criticism of the hospital funding bill as inadequate. He expects to see the problem get worse, he said.
While the Legislature intends to continue to study the funding issue, Boley said, “I kind of feel like a ship without a rudder like now. Because coming out of the session, there really is no direction going forward. We heard a lot of the senators say they wanted to come up with a Wyoming solution, but no one has an idea what that even looks like.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.