Wyoming

Wyoming legislators have rejected the expansion of Medicaid to 20,000 low-income Wyomingites, The Wyoming Tribune Eagle's James Chilton reports. Most legislators continued their opposition to the expansion, but Sen. Tony Ross, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, changed his mind "having looked at the potential savings and compared them to the state’s massive looming budget shortfalls." However, not enough legislators changed their mind to bring Medicaid expansion to Wyoming.

Republican-sponsored bills to expand Medicaid in Wyoming died last week, the Casper Star Tribune's Trevor Graff and Laura Hancock report. The proposal would have expanded healthcare to 17,600 uninsured Wyomites, they report. One bill died in a Senate committee, and a similar bill was pulled from the House. Eric Boley, president of the Wyoming Hospital Association, "hospitals around the state are stuck with hundreds of millions of dollars in uncompensated costs annually as uninsured people are treated at emergency rooms." Proponents, however, plan to try again in the future.

U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl has struck down Wyoming's ban on same-sex marriage, following the cue of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, NBC News reports. The 10th Circuit, which presides over appeals in federal cases in Wyoming, already ruled that same-sex marriage laws in other states are unconstitutional. Thirty-two states now allow same-sex marriage.

The Wyoming Supreme Court heard arguments this week on whether "a trade secrets exemption in the state's open records law shields many of the chemicals the petroleum industry uses during hydraulic fracturing from public disclosure," according to the Associated Press. Companies do have to disclose the makeup of the chemical products to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but environmentalists want the commission to disclose that information to the public.