You can still get a nationwide PPO in Wyoming through me. Here is how a nurse who keeps her home in Evanston, with doctors on both sides of the Utah line, chooses coverage between contracts.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. I'm a broker in Tampa with licenses in 36 states, and travel nurses with a Wyoming home base handle their coverage with me by phone between shifts.
The nurse I'm picturing owns a small house in Evanston, just off I-80 and a short drive from the Utah line. She works ER contracts across the West, recently in Boise and Reno, and comes home between assignments. Her family doctor practices in Evanston, but for anything specialized she drives toward Park City or Salt Lake City, about an hour and a half away. Each time an agency plan ends, she has to decide what covers her until the next one starts, and the choices in her county are thinner than she expected.
Uinta County has 11 individual medical plans on the marketplace for 2026, all from one insurer and all PPOs. Lincoln and Teton counties have the same short list; the rest of Wyoming has 23 plans from two companies. So in Evanston there's no second company and no other plan type to weigh. The only marketplace question is which of those PPOs fits, and how it treats a specialist in Utah.
Off the marketplace, a nationwide PPO is still available to you in Wyoming through me. It's privately underwritten, and its network is meant to cover you in Evanston, in Salt Lake City and on assignment in another state.
Fewer choices also means less room on price. Uinta County's least expensive silver plan for a 40-year-old, before any credit, costs 7% more than Laramie County's. Statewide, KFF measured a 25.1% rise in the average benchmark silver plan between 2025 and 2026.
A marketplace PPO still pays when you see a provider outside its network, but you carry a bigger share of that bill. Before you count on one for a Salt Lake City specialist, find out whether that doctor is in network or will be billed as out of network.
When an agency plan ends, HealthCare.gov treats that as a loss of job coverage, and that opens a Special Enrollment Period. The window runs 60 days on either side of the loss, so the smart move is to apply while you're still finishing the current assignment. Then get the next agency to tell you, in writing, the day its plan takes over. Even a two-week gap leaves you with nothing behind you if something happens on the drive home.
Next step: Send me your contract end date and the next start date, and I'll show you how to cover every day in between.
A full year of contracts can put your income well above four times the poverty line, and then you'd pay the full Uinta County price. That's where a private nationwide PPO earns a close look. The insurer checks your health history and approves, approves minus one condition, or declines. Healthy nurses often come in below the unsubsidized marketplace price, and the network goes where your contracts do. I'll take you through each plan's benefits so nothing surprises you later.
Next step: Phone me while you're home between assignments, and I'll quote a nationwide PPO against the full-price Uinta County PPOs.
Time off between contracts can drop the year's income into the range where the credit applies. The marketplace looks at the expected income of everyone in your tax household. With the credit, a Uinta County PPO is usually the most affordable path, and since all 11 plans are PPOs, compare deductibles and how each one handles your Utah doctors.
Next step: Give me a revised income estimate and your doctors' names, and I'll price the Uinta County PPOs after the credit.
Keep a marketplace plan. Those plans accept everyone and can't price on health history. With one insurer in your county, the network question is about which of its plans covers your specialists best, and how they pay when you're working in another state.
Next step: List your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll check which Uinta County plan keeps them across the state line.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
One. Uinta County has 11 individual medical plans for 2026, all PPOs from a single insurer.
Yes. Before any subsidy, Uinta County's least expensive silver plan for a 40-year-old costs 7% more than Laramie County's.
Yes. The window for a lost job-based plan opens 60 days ahead of the end date, so you can apply while still on contract.
Yes, if you're in good health. I can arrange one that covers you at home in Evanston and on assignment.
Give me the dates of your next assignment, the start date of its agency plan and a rough figure for the year's pay. I'll lay out the Uinta County plans and a private nationwide PPO side by side.
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