Committee approves bill codifying Medicaid eligibility, adds guardrails against expansion

The Labor, Health & Social Services Committee approved a bill to place Medicaid eligibility criteria into Wyoming statute and added several amendments that limit the possibility of future expansion and require a rulemaking period before the law takes effect.

LSO staff described 26 LSO 139 as a statutory restatement of Department of Health eligibility rules. Miss Johnson of the Legislative Service Office told the committee the draft is drawn from the Department of Health’s Medicaid rules and "in order to be eligible for Medicaid, the applicant must be a citizen or national of The United States, be a Wyoming resident, fulfill one of the following..." Director Stefan Johansson of the Wyoming Department of Health said the bill largely mirrors existing department rules: "You cannot just be low income and qualify for Medicaid in Wyoming." The department reiterated that many covered groups are set in federal law and that the bill should not be read as changing who the state must cover.

Why it matters: Medicaid is a…