Wyoming pays when Washington refuses to lead

The health insurance crisis bearing down on Wyoming in 2026 did not happen by accident. It happened because leaders in Washington chose not to lead.

At the end of 2025, Congress allowed enhanced Affordable Care Act (often called Obamacare) subsidies to expire, despite years of warnings about what would follow. The math was already known. Premiums would rise sharply. Coverage would be lost. Working families would be squeezed.

That outcome is now unavoidable.

For many people who buy insurance on their own, those subsidies currently keep premiums around $74 per month, or roughly $888 per year. Without congressional action, that same coverage could jump to about $159 per month, or $1,904 per year. That is more than double, and for many households it is the difference between having insurance and going without it.

Some Wyoming families face far steeper increases. National reporting highlights a couple whose monthly premium is projected to rise from $340 per month to nearly $1,928 per month. That is a jump from about $4,080 a year to more than $23,000 a year. No small-business owner or self-employed worker can absorb that kind of increase.

Wyoming is hit harder than most states because we already start from a worse position. Before subsidies, many individual plans here cost $900 to $1,100 per month. About 95% of Wyoming marketplace enrollees rely on subsidies to make coverage affordable. When that support disappears, there are few alternatives.

This crisis reflects a broader failure to compromise. Democrats created subsidies that worked but made them temporary. Republicans opposed extending them without offering a workable replacement. Congress as a whole allowed the deadline to pass.

Presidents do not write laws, but they are expected to lead. They are expected to negotiate, to pressure lawmakers and to broker solutions when the stakes are this high. In this moment, Donald Trump failed to act as a mediator and national leader. Rather than pushing both parties toward a compromise that protected working Americans, the White House allowed predictable harm to unfold.

What makes this failure worse is who pays the price.

The burden does not fall on wealthy political leaders or donors. It falls on ranchers, contractors and small-business owners whose incomes fluctuate year to year. It falls on early retirees and self-employed workers who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford soaring premiums.

Many of the people making these decisions are insulated from the consequences. They have excellent coverage. A premium increase is an abstract talking point, not a household emergency.

For Wyoming families, it is neither abstract nor political. It is a monthly bill that cannot be paid.

Leadership is not about ideology. It is about preventing foreseeable harm. There was time to extend the subsidies temporarily. There was time to compromise. There was time to soften the landing. None of that happened.

Now the consequences are landing where Washington dysfunction always lands hardest.

Here.

And once again, Wyoming pays more than most.