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FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004

NATIONAL REPORT EXAMINES WYOMING’S

STATE-PROVIDED HEALTH CARE

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2004) – An assessment of health care in the 50 states, released here today, found that Wyoming countered a national trend to reduce children’s coverage in its State Children’s Health Insurance Program last year—but just barely. Children are now eligible if their families are at 185 percent of poverty, up from 133 percent of poverty. The report has been published in the February issue of Governing magazine.

“Wyoming was fortunate to have a stable enough budget to make this change,” said Richard Greene, co-author of the report, who also noted that Wyoming’s benefits “are still low relative to the majority of other states, and the state also introduced some co-payments when it made the change.”

In fact, while many other states were expanding their Medicaid programs during the flush 1990s, Wyoming kept its access and benefits at a relatively bare bones level, with few optional benefits and no efforts to expand access. “So, while many of the other states have had to cut back on Medicaid, the truth is that there wasn’t a heck of a lot Wyoming could cut,” added Greene. “What’s more, its economy has been somewhat more stable than many other states over the last couple of years.”

Wyoming is also one of few states to offer none of its Medicaid benefits through managed care programs. The population of the state – less than half a million citizens – coupled with the state’s enormous land mass has made it an undesirable marketplace for managed care companies. “I remember when the managed care push was really growing,” one state official told Governing. “We were ready to pounce. But nobody wants us. What insurance company would see value? The whole state has barely enough people for one good group.”

On a positive note, Wyoming is one of a half dozen states that is now spending more of its long-term care budget on home care rather than institutional care. It has actively pursued a variety of waivers for home and community based care that help keep people out of nursing homes. “Not only are many of the elderly and disabled who need long term care happier in their home or in community based services, it’s substantially less expensive than institutional care,” said Greene. “Wyoming is really to be commended for its attention to this area.”

The Government Performance Project found and documented the inability of the 50 states’ healthcare system to deliver improvements in medicine fairly and consistently to many of their citizens. Health care in most states is not just inadequate, the study concluded--it’s deteriorating. “After exhaustive analysis and hundreds of interviews,” says Peter Harkness, Governing’s publisher and editor, “it became clear that there is a health care crisis in America. But it is in no way a medical crisis. It is a fiscal crisis.”

Governing is a policy and management magazine aimed at high-level state and local government officials. An online version of this report will be available at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/intro.htm as of January 29. Press releases for each of the 50 states can be found at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/press.htm.

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