The Wyoming Senate gave preliminary approval last week to a bill that would appropriate $5 million to help hospitals cover the cost of treating uninsured people.
Senator Ray Peterson (Big Horn/Park County-R), who sponsored the legislation, said that the bill would send the message to constituents and local hospital administrators that lawmakers recognize hospitals are providing uncompensated care.
Senator Charles Scott (Natrona County-R) is chairman of the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee. He said the bill would give the state a little breathing room, but wouldn’t solve the problem permanently.
Passage of this bill comes hot on the heels of the Senate’s decision to reject approximately $120 million a year in Medicaid expansion funding. The expansion bill would have offered health insurance coverage to nearly 18,000 Wyoming residents.
Pre-Med students at UW said they would feel conflicted between their responsibilities as doctors versus their responsibility as business owners.
Chris Ellbogen, a senior studying physiology, said that if it becomes uneconomical to treat patients with less than sufficient coverage, hard choices would have to be made.
“You still have to run a business.” Ellbogen said.
David Beach, a UW student that aspires to become an Army doctor, said that worrying about compensation was something he would have to consider far down the line, but that current compensation or lack their of is a real problem for practices.
“Medicaid is historically the worst paying insurance for doctors,” Beach said.
Ellbogen said that he thinks that the appropriations in the bill would also protect patients with insurance by reducing the high billing rates of doctors.
“If you have a higher percentage of compensation you wont have to place as much of a financial burden on the other patients.” Ellbogen said.
The House will now consider the uninsured patients appropriations bill.
