Post by Logan on May 9, 2016 8:33:12 GMT -6
CASPER – Some of Wyoming’s unemployed energy workers would now be eligible for health coverage if the state had expanded Medicaid to low-income Wyomingites, Gov. Matt Mead said.
“As you see these coal miners being laid off, people in oil and gas being laid off, there’s no question some of those people would have been eligible had we expanded Medicaid,” Mead said Thursday evening in Casper. “We’re trying to do our best to find them jobs. But jobs are part of it, health care is part of it. And so I think the state missed an opportunity last time on Medicaid expansion.”
Mead discussed the layoffs and decline in energy revenues, which provide 70 percent of the money to state coffers, about two weeks after announcing he was cutting state agencies by 8 percent. An April 22 report showed revenues are projected to fall $120 million short of earlier estimates for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Mead, who will meet with each of his agency heads beginning this week to review their 8 percent plans, hopes to avoid laying off personnel, he said.
Read more: www.wyomingnews.com/news/mead-says-state-missed-out-on-medicaid-opportunity/article_8bddc2ea-15a5-11e6-9587-83fde535ef7b.html
“As you see these coal miners being laid off, people in oil and gas being laid off, there’s no question some of those people would have been eligible had we expanded Medicaid,” Mead said Thursday evening in Casper. “We’re trying to do our best to find them jobs. But jobs are part of it, health care is part of it. And so I think the state missed an opportunity last time on Medicaid expansion.”
Mead discussed the layoffs and decline in energy revenues, which provide 70 percent of the money to state coffers, about two weeks after announcing he was cutting state agencies by 8 percent. An April 22 report showed revenues are projected to fall $120 million short of earlier estimates for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Mead, who will meet with each of his agency heads beginning this week to review their 8 percent plans, hopes to avoid laying off personnel, he said.
Read more: www.wyomingnews.com/news/mead-says-state-missed-out-on-medicaid-opportunity/article_8bddc2ea-15a5-11e6-9587-83fde535ef7b.html