Best Cheap Health Insurance in Wyoming (2023)

Wyoming has one of the highest average monthly health insurance rates in America, but residents can often find affordable health insurance plans on the state health insurance exchange. The best insurance plan for you will depend on your needs and financial situation.

The Mountain Health Co-op High Plains Ind Silver WY is the cheapest Silver plan available in every county. Although this is the most affordable plan across the state, the price of the policy will differ depending on your age.

Cheapest health insurance by metal tier

We compared Wyoming plans by metal tier and identified the cheapest health insurance policy for each level of coverage. The High Plains Ind Bronze WY Expanded is the cheapest Bronze plan. It costs $573 per month for a 40-year-old and has a deductible of $7,500.

Age and metal tier are two important factors that impact the monthly health insurance premium you pay for your policy. As the policyholder gets older, the average cost of health care coverage across all metal tiers will increase. In Wyoming, this means rates for a 40-year-old will be 28% more expensive than for a 21-year-old. That same 40-year-old would pay 53% less for a policy than a 60-year-old.

Finding your best health insurance coverage in Wyoming

The best health insurance policy for you is one that fits your medical coverage needs and financial situation. Typically, higher metal tier policies (Silver and Gold) have more expensive monthly rates. In return, they also tend to provide lower out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles, copays and coinsurance. These plans are best if you think you may become sick or already have high recurring medical costs that arise from chronic conditions.

On the other hand, if you're young and healthy and don't expect to have many medical costs, you may wish to choose a Bronze plan to save money. Ultimately, all metal-tier health policies on the Health Insurance Marketplace are eligible for premium subsidies, which would reduce your monthly rates by a substantial amount if your income is low enough to qualify.

Gold plans: Best for high expected medical costs

The cheapest Gold plan in Wyoming is the High Plains Ind Gold WY. Compare all tiers in Wyoming.

Gold plans are the highest metal tier plans available in Wyoming and typically cover the greatest share of out-of-pocket costs, which means you'll pay lower deductibles, copays and coinsurance. The average cost of a Gold plan in Wyoming is actually 15% lower on average than the average cost of a Silver health plan. However, Gold plans are not eligible for the cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies that Silver plan holders may qualify for. If you qualify for those reductions on Silver policies, it may make a Silver plan much more cost-effective than a Gold plan overall.

Generally, Gold health insurance policies are the best in terms of cost-effectiveness if you expect high medical expenses, such as from chronic conditions, or if you have costly prescriptions. You can expect these plans to cover about 80% of your medical costs, while you pay for the remaining 20%.

Silver plans: Best for those with low incomes or average medical costs

The cheapest Silver plan in Wyoming is the High Plains Ind Silver WY. Compare all tiers in Wyoming.

The coverage and overall costs of Silver plans usually fall between Gold and Bronze plans. However, rates increased when cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies were no longer reimbursed by the government.

If you are part of a lower-income household, you may qualify for both premium subsidies and CSR subsidies, which would lower both your out-of-pocket expenses and your monthly premium. Typical Silver plans cover about 70% of your health care costs, while you pay 30%. But with CSR subsidies, you could qualify for a Silver plan that covers up to 94% of your health care costs.

Bronze plans: Best for young, healthy people

The cheapest Bronze plan in Wyoming is the High Plains Ind Bronze WY Expanded. Compare all tiers in Wyoming.

Bronze health insurance plans offer the cheapest monthly prices, but the trade-off is that they also offer the lowest level of coverage. Bronze policy premiums are 30% cheaper than Silver plan premiums, on average. But if you need medical care during the year, you will have to pay more out of pocket before coverage kicks in.

On average, you can expect a Bronze plan to cover about 60% of your health care costs, while you pay for the other 40%. Therefore, we would only recommend these plans if you have the financial means to cover a large portion of your health care costs in the case of a potential medical emergency.

Health insurance companies in Wyoming

Wyoming has one of the highest pre-subsidy monthly health insurance premiums in the country. The high premiums may be due in part to the fact that there are only two health insurance companies on the Wyoming state exchange: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming and Mountain Health Co-op. In addition, states that have lower populations typically have higher insurance premiums.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming had been the only insurer on the exchange in Wyoming for several years. However, Mountain Health Co-op introduced several insurance plans in 2021 and offers the cheapest plans in all plan tiers in 2023.

Cheapest health insurance plan by county

Finding the best health plan for your family can be challenging since policy costs and availability often change depending on the region you live in. However, we compared rates for every Silver policy in Wyoming and found the High Plains Ind Silver WY is the cheapest health plan in each county.

Average cost of health insurance by family size in Wyoming

The number of people covered by a particular health insurance plan and their ages will affect the monthly premium on the policy. If you add a child to your health insurance plan, the monthly premium for the child will be a flat rate until they reach the age of 15. Once the child turns 15 years old, the monthly rate to insure them will increase annually as they grow older.

For instance, the average monthly health insurance cost for a family of three in Wyoming, assuming two 40-year-old parents and one child on a Silver plan, is $2,291. If you were to add another child to the plan, rates would increase by $528 per month. So, for a family of four, the total cost of a plan would be $2,819 per month.

Health insurance rate changes in Wyoming

Health insurance rates are set by individual health insurers but must go to the Wyoming exchange for approval. Over the past year, the average cost of health insurance in Wyoming increased by 17%, to $752, for a 40-year-old. This is a $108 per month increase from the average cost in 2022.

Methodology

Health insurance rates and plan data stated above for Wyoming were aggregated from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website. We used the CMS public use files (PUFs) to average health insurance premiums across a variety of factors such as age, metal tier, county and family size. Plans and providers for which county-level data was included in the CMS Crosswalk file were used in our analysis; those excluded from this data set may not appear.