You can still get a nationwide PPO in Wyoming through me. Here is how a Laramie contractor in her first year on her own estimates income in a state with no Medicaid expansion.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a health insurance broker in Tampa licensed in 36 states. Lots of my clients are paid on 1099s, and Wyoming contractors can do all of this with me by phone.
Here's the person I'm imagining. She spent years as an instructional designer on staff in Laramie, then left to freelance. Now she builds online courses for clients in Denver and Salt Lake City, plus a few training programs for small businesses around town, all from a home office a few blocks from the university. Her staff health plan ends with her job. Her first year on her own is a guess: one big client is signed, two more are maybes, and the slow months could be slow indeed. In most states a thin first year has a Medicaid floor under it. Wyoming isn't one of them.
For 2026 Albany County's marketplace lists 23 individual medical plans from two insurers, with one company selling all 11 PPOs and the other all 12 EPOs. The PPO has a small price edge: the least expensive silver PPO runs 2% below the least expensive silver EPO for a 40-year-old, before any credit.
Through me you can also still get a nationwide PPO in Wyoming. It's privately underwritten and built to cover you on a client trip to Denver as well as at home in Laramie.
The marketplace bases your savings on the net self-employment income you expect for the year you're covered, not on last year's paychecks. For a new contractor that means revenue minus software, equipment, a home office and travel to clients. Help is generally available between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level.
The bottom of that range matters in Wyoming. KFF lists the state as not having adopted the Medicaid expansion, and its table shows parents in a three-person family qualifying only up to 43% of the poverty level, while other adults can't qualify on income at all. HealthCare.gov describes what happens in between: adults below 100% of the poverty level in states like this, who don't qualify for Medicaid some other way, fall into a gap and get no marketplace savings.
If a realistic estimate puts you between 100% and 400% of the poverty line, a HealthCare.gov plan with the credit is usually the most affordable route. Losing your staff plan can open a Special Enrollment Period, and you can use it in the 60 days before the loss or the 60 days after, so set it up before your last day.
In Albany County the silver PPO costs a bit less than the silver EPO, which makes it usually the better buy. It also pays something for providers outside its network, at an added cost, which the EPO doesn't do outside an emergency. The EPO only makes sense if the people you already see belong to that other company's network.
Next step: Send me your doctors and a realistic first-year income estimate, and I'll price the Albany County PPO and EPO after the credit.
This is the case to plan, not guess. Build your estimate from contracts you actually expect, not from fear of a slow year. If the honest number really does fall under 100% of the poverty line, you'd be in the gap HealthCare.gov describes, and we should talk about every option before you apply, including what full-price coverage would cost you until the business grows.
Next step: Call me before you enter an income figure, and we'll work through the contracts you have lined up and where they put you.
If the year clears four times the poverty line, you'll pay Albany County's full price, and Wyoming's full prices are among the highest in the country. Compare that with a private nationwide PPO. The insurer goes through your health history and offers coverage, offers it with a single condition excluded, or declines. Contractors in good health often come in below the unsubsidized marketplace price. I'll go through each plan's benefits with you before you commit.
Next step: Ring me when your client list for the year is settled, and I'll put a nationwide PPO quote next to the full-price plans.
Stay with a marketplace plan. Those plans take every applicant and can't charge more for health. Since one company sells the PPOs and the other the EPOs, make sure the doctor treating you in Laramie, or in Fort Collins or Cheyenne, is in the network you pick.
Next step: Tell me who's treating you and what you take, and I'll find the Albany County plans that keep them.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
No. KFF lists Wyoming as not having adopted it, with a limit of 43% of the poverty level for parents in a family of three and no eligibility for other adults.
HealthCare.gov says adults in that range in non-expansion states who don't qualify for Medicaid another way fall into a gap, with no marketplace savings.
At silver, the PPO. Albany County's lowest-priced silver PPO comes in 2% under its lowest-priced silver EPO.
Yes, if your health qualifies. I can price one alongside the Albany County plans so you can see both.
Tell me your county, who's on your policy, the date your old coverage ends and your best guess at this year's net. I'll show you the Albany County plans after the credit and a private nationwide PPO for comparison.
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