Across our state and our country, coronavirus cases are spiking. The need for high-quality affordable care is more apparent than ever. Yet, for some reason, our legislators don’t want to do much about it – and never have. 

When Cynthia Lummis was in Congress, she voted against, and then voted dozens of times to repeal, the Affordable Care Act. When asked about these votes, she said that the Affordable Care Act was “designed for urban areas” and that rural Americans haven’t felt its benefits. She’s wrong. 
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In states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, uninsured rates for low-income rural adults declined three-times faster than in non-expansion states. It’s a pity that Medicaid expansion was optional: Wyoming’s refusal to join most states has cost us at least $1.3 billion. But the loss is more than just financial – refusing to expand affordable healthcare costs Wyomingites their lives. 

Because of limited access to high-quality healthcare, rural Americans are dying younger than their urban counterparts. Only recently have rural low-income folks started enjoying the same longevity that their rich countrymen had for forty years now. Many rural residents, such as farmers and ranchers, cannot pay high insurance costs and are refused coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Right now, 68,000 lives are lost each year across the country because people cannot afford and do not have access to quality care. 

Even when only a few people are uninsured it strains the entire community because hospitals are forced to foot the bill for uncompensated care. Rural hospitals are breaking under the pressure: one in four were at risk of closure even before the COVID19 pandemic. But in Medicaid expansion states, rural hospitals are 62% less likely to close than in non-expansion states. 

Yet even when hospital doors stay open, services are often inadequate. As of 2014, 54% of rural counties had no hospitals with obstetric services. Lack of access is worse in states that have not expanded Medicaid. Many rural women have to drive hours in order to access care. For all these reasons, both infant and maternal mortality rates are substantially higher in rural areas. Every time the Wyoming legislature votes against Medicaid expansion, and every time career politicians in DC vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they are voting against the lives of the unborn and their mothers.

While the Affordable Care Act has helped to narrow the urban-rural gap, Americans living in low population states are still less likely to be insured. Uninsured rates are much, much higher in non-Medicaid-expansion states. We must build on the Affordable Care Act by transitioning to truly universalized healthcare in America.

Universal healthcare would guarantee all Americans quality healthcare from birth to death. It would also help health outcomes by giving the government more leverage in negotiating drug prices  – a critical effort, given that about 8% of Americans don’t take their medications regularly because they simply can’t afford them. These are our parents, friends, our neighbors, and our colleagues. We owe it to them and their families to do better. 

Better yet, universal healthcare would improve our economy as well. Instead of paying out-of pocket expenses, you will be supporting your local small businesses. Employers will be able to increase the wages of their workers instead of paying for health insurance. On top of that, it would save hundreds of billions of dollars currently going to fund overhead costs of private insurers – costs that are three times higher than what Medicare pays for the same services and twice the percentage that Canada, which has a single payer system, spends. 

If this is all new to you, don’t feel bad: insurance companies (and the politicians they buy) are rarely forthcoming with the facts. But as your Senator, I will always tell you the truth. 

I leave you with this. With the death toll from coronavirus topping 200,000 and more and more people losing their healthcare benefits after losing their jobs, the time to act is now. The health and dignity of the American people cannot wait any longer.