The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is supposed to be all about tax breaks.
Opinion
But the bill actually cancels a tax break that could skyrocket health insurance costs for tens of thousands of people in Wyoming and drive up prices for all of us.
Wyoming’s Rep. Harriet Hageman and Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis love to talk about all the tax breaks that the Big Beautiful Bill is supposed to create.
But they’re awfully quiet about getting rid of this one.
As it’s written, the “Big Beautiful Bill” eliminates major tax credits that people in Wyoming use to buy private health insurance off the federal Healthcare Marketplace, via healthcare.gov.
By eliminating these tax credits, the bill would double, triple, or even quadruple the cost of insurance premiums many people in Wyoming pay.
The result will be even tighter family budgets, more people without insurance, more medical debt, bankrupted hospitals, sicker communities, and a sicker workforce.
Currently, a single person earning $62,000 a year in Wyoming can buy a year’s worth of medical insurance for $5,270 thanks to Marketplace tax credits. If the Big Beautiful Bill eliminates those credits, that price will increase to $11,810, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
That’s more than double the cost. And that’s not the worst of it.
Older people in Wyoming who aren’t quite eligible for Medicare will see the biggest increases.
Right now, a 60-year-old couple earning $80,000 a year together can buy health insurance from the Marketplace for $6,970 to cover both of them.
Again, this is thanks to tax credits.
Under the Big Beautiful Bill, the cost will shoot up to $44,392 a year just for insurance premiums.
For most people nearing retirement, this cost will simply be impossible to pay.
Just shy of 40,000 people in Wyoming get their health insurance through the Marketplace, KFF Health News reported.
These are mostly people who are self-employed or who work for small businesses that don’t offer job-based coverage, or they’re people who string together two or three part-time gigs.
If you’ve never bought health insurance off the Marketplace — I did for years — what happens is that you select a plan from a private company, like Blue Cross Blue Shield, but you pay a lower price than you normally would as an individual customer.
Your Marketplace tax credit covers the difference.
Americans have been eligible to buy health insurance with Marketplace tax credits since 2014. During the pandemic, Congress created “enhanced” tax credits that made insurance affordable for even more people.
These enhanced credits have been wildly popular in Wyoming. The number of people who got coverage with Marketplace tax credits in Wyoming increased by more than 75% since 2020, according to KFF Health News.
These “enhanced” credits are what the “Big Beautiful Bill” seeks to eliminate.
This will mean a total loss of health coverage for 11,000 people in Wyoming.
But that’s not all. The way it’s set up, Marketplace tax credits are basically subsidy payments to private insurance companies.
When private companies lose a source of revenue, what do they do?
They raise prices for the remaining customers.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming is the state’s largest insurer — covering more than 100,000 people — and the largest local vendor for coverage on the Healthcare Marketplace. They stand to lose significant business thanks to the “Big Beautiful Bill” and will react by driving up premium prices for the rest of us.
On top of the thousands of people who totally lose coverage as a result of canceling the Marketplace tax credits, roughly one in five people in the state will face a premium increase on their job-based or other private insurance.
Tax breaks are great for the people who need them.
Right now, families in Wyoming need a break to help shoulder the cost of healthcare in our state, which is the second-highest in the nation.
Unfortunately, our elected leaders in Congress are too busy cheerleading tax cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill that will mostly benefit the richest people and corporations in America, all while driving up our national debt and increasing your health care premiums.
That doesn’t seem like much of a break to me.
This is important, but the Big Beautiful Bill has a lot of problems. In light of Tom Homan and JD Vance commenting on prioritizing the huge increase in funding for mass deportation, I wrote the following to our Senators:
As you work on the Big Beautiful Bill, I hope you will consider perhaps the most consequential piece of the bill; the huge increase in mass deportation funding.
The President ran on deporting criminals. I have not heard a single voice in opposition to that idea. I remember the bi-partisan support for the comprehensive immigration reform bill that was ultimately opposed by the Republican Presidential candidate at the time, with Republicans falling in line to kill the bill.
Since January, I have seen countless videos of supposed federal agents dressed variously as soldiers invading Iraq wearing camouflage and carrying long guns ,to jeans and tennis shoes with an ill-fitting flack jacket. They all cover their faces. They refuse to identify themselves. In America, the police work for us. They are accountable to us. We need to know exactly who is giving them their orders. If they are bounty hunters instead of officers, we need to know.
Rather than going after hardened criminals, these agents are picking up easy targets: people at work, people showing up for their court dates, children at school. Now there is an effort to de-naturalize people. Based on recent events, I do not trust the administration to provide due process or follow the law. Detention centers are overfilled. Not having one’s paperwork in order is a misdemeanor. No one should be jailed if they are not violent or facing serious criminal charges, and certainly not under inhumane conditions. CECOT? Alligator Alcatraz? Seriously? Are you going to approve funding for this?
All these events prove the President is abusing his power to terrorize citizens and non-citizens alike. This is not about immigration. This is about building a dictatorship. Please do not provide additional funding for this cartoon villain horror show.
Listen all this health care issue has gone on as long as our immigration issue has. Congress has done basically nothing to solve or rectify either issue. That is BOTH PARTIES. Both share equal blame. But it seems we have unlimited money on endless wars. If Congress had done right thing by USA citizens we would have solved this problem. But really who is to blame is each and every voter for not DEMANDING Congress solve the problem for USA citizens first. We really have nothing to show for $37 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT.
The ACA in Wyoming has always been a joke from the start. Wyoming has no state exchange. Buyers have to use the federal exchange at healthcare.gov. There are only one or two companies there that provide plans for Wyoming. The federal money they collect on ACA plans goes directly to the insurance companies not to insured persons, which is a result of their congressional lobbying efforts. These “affordable plans” have ridiculously high annual deductibles and out of pocket costs (5 to 10k) that effectively pay nothing out, because most peoples’ annual medical costs do not exceed them. This heavily lobbied situation has government tax money for premiums going directly into the pockets of insurance companies and subsequent payout money for medical expenses coming out of their “insured” customers’ pockets. Most legit businesses would never get such a lucrative deal which explains the lobbying. I would think all that ACA money could have been better spent from the start to expand Medicaid, rather than to enrich insurance companies on the dole with taxpayer funds. But I guess it doesn’t matter because their big beautiful bill will be gutting Medicaid as well—just so the mega-donors of our Three Amigos Wyoming delegation can get the big beautiful tax cut they deserve. Either way, insurance companies will probably also benefit from the same tax cuts and raise their premiums anyway. Isn’t congressional lobbying and mega-donor election buying great?
Many of Wyoming’s farmers, ranchers and small business owners rely on the ACA for their healthcare as well as some utilize Medicaid. It is important to remember that if ACA goes away, then for private insurance the requirements to not deny applicants on the basis of preexisting conditions goes away. So many will be denied insurance coverage. Not good news for diabetics, those with elevated cholesterol, or any chronic disease. Little fly by nite companys will jump into the mix and offer insurance. One victim of this was a person who had elevated cholesterol The insurance denied coverage for the heart attack as they countered that the cholesterol caused the heart attack so the person was stuck. Also losing coverage for those who provide insurance for their kids will end as the rule about keeping .kids on their policy until age 26 will end. Please let the senators know it is not a good idea for Wyoming to cut off its nose to spite its face, This is a serious situation in regards to the ACA and Medicaid
Well said Nate. This turkey was stuffed by billionaires for billionaires.
Wyomingites losing a source to have insurance through ACA or Medicaid will drive uncompensated care to hospitals up to unsustainable levels. This will do nothing to help the rate Wyoming MDs leave the state or improve maternity care availability.
Vote the three floating turds out of office.