A Profile of Wyoming’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers by Joan Alker and Alexandra Corcoran May 2021 The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.1 These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the federal share for a 24-month period after the state extends coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that Wyoming’s budget would see a net gain of $30 million over a two-year period if the state expanded The Georgetown University Center Medicaid.2 Approximately 15,200 uninsured nonelderly adults, or 28 percent of the for Children and Families (CCF) is an state’s uninsured adult population, would gain health insurance.3 independent, nonpartisan policy and This fact sheet examines which workers and industries would benefit from research center founded in 2005 with a expansion of Medicaid coverage.4 The top sectors employing low-wage uninsured mission to expand and improve high- quality, affordable health coverage for workers in Wyoming are hospitality and retail, accounting for more than half (57.1 America’s children and families. CCF is percent) of those working without insurance (see Table 1). Within these industries, based in the McCourt School of Public the top occupation types are food preparation and serving, and sales which Policy’s Health Policy Institute. encompass 39.7 percent of Wyoming’s uninsured low-wage workers (see Table 2). Table 1. Top Industry Sectors in Wyoming For Low-Wage Workers For Low-Wage, Uninsured Workers Accommodation and food services 21.0% Accommodation and food services 30.4% Retail 21.0% Retail 26.7% Educational services 10.0% Note: Workers with no occupation are not listed. Health care and social assistance 8.8% Source: Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis of US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019 Public Use Microdata Construction 6.6% Sample (PUMS). Table 2. Top Occupational Sectors in Wyoming For Low-Wage Workers For Low-Wage, Uninsured Workers Food preparation and serving 17.6% Food preparation and serving 23.5% Sales 12.5% Sales 16.2% Office and administrative support 10.5% Note: Workers with no occupation are not listed. Building, grounds cleaning, and maintenance 9.7% Source: Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis of US Transportation and material moving 8.5% Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019 Public Use Microdata Educational instruction and library 5.7% Sample (PUMS). CCF.GEORGETOWN.EDU wyoming’s low-wage, uninsured workers Demographics of uninsured low-income adults More than While women make up just over half of all low-income nonelderly citizens (51.0 percent), men make up the majority of those who are uninsured (51.6 percent). Due to Wyoming’s small size, reliable data is not available to ascertain the precise share of Black, Asian, and American Indian/Alaskan Native citizens who would gain coverage; of uninsured however, the data does show that over eighty percent of uninsured low-income low-income nonelderly citizens are White. nonelderly citizens are White. Which parts of the state have higher proportions of uninsured workers? As the map on the right shows, the southeast corner Uninsured Rate for of the state has the lowest proportion of uninsured Nonelderly Workers workers. Table 3 shows the 12 counties with the Above 20% Between 10-20% highest uninsured rates (in excess of 15 percent) for Lower than 10% all workers regardless of income or citizenship—all Estimate suppressed are rural counties except for Natrona County which due to unreliable data includes Casper. In five counties, at least one in five workers is uninsured. Note: Includes all workers ages 19-64 regardless of income or citizenship status. Source: Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2015-2019 Table DP03. Contact authors for more information on the methodology. Table 3. Counties with 15 Pecent or More County Uninsured Rate County Uninsured Rate of Workers Uninsured United States 11.0% Platte 19.7% Wyoming 13.9% Hot Springs 19.2% Note: Includes all workers ages 19-64 regardless of income or Niobrara 26.2% Johnson 16.6% citizenship status. Big Horn 22.1% Natrona 16.6% Source: Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) Washakie 22.1% Teton 15.4% 2015-2019 Table DP03. Out of Wyoming’s 23 counties, one county Fremont 20.9% Goshen 15.2% (Sublette County) is suppressed due to high margins of error and low-reliability. Lincoln 20.1% Park 15.0% Endnotes 1 For more information on the provisions of the law, see E. Park and 3 Kaiser Family Foundation, “Who Could Medicaid Reach with S. Corlette, “American Rescue Plan Act: Health Coverage Provisions Expansion in Wyoming?” (Washington DC: Kaiser Family Foundation, Explained” (Washington DC: Georgetown University Center for Children February 2021), available at https://files.kff.org/attachment/fact-sheet- and Families and Center on Health Insurance Reform, March 2021), medicaid-expansion-WY. available at https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2021/03/11/american-rescue- 4 Because Wyoming is a small state, data suppression rules limit the plan-act-health-coverage-provisions-explained/. scope of what can be reliably reported in contrast to other states in this 2 R. Rudowitz, B. Corallo, and R. Garfield, “New Incentive for States to series. Contact authors for more information on sources of data and Adopt the ACA Medicaid Expansion: Implications for State Spending” methods. All data are derived from the American Community Survey (Washington DC: Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2021), available at (2019). Most data are from the 2019 Public Use Microdata Sample https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/new-incentive-for-states-to- (PUMS); county data calculated from American Community Survey five- adopt-the-aca-medicaid-expansion-implications-for-state-spending/. year (2015-2019) prepared tables. May 2021 CCF.GEORGETOWN.EDU wyoming’S low-wage, uninsured workers 2