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Laramie's Downtown Clinic Worried About Healthcare Bill

More healthcare providers around Wyoming are expressing worry over the Senate’s healthcare bill released last week.

The Downtown Clinic in Laramie provides primary care and emergency dental services to people without any healthcare coverage.

Pete Gosar, the clinic’s executive director, said the bill may make it more difficult to provide coverage there. The clinic recently had to extend its operating hours, staying open two days a week instead of one, to accommodate all 700 patients.

Gosar said if this bill passes and more people lose their coverage under Medicaid, it would be tough to make ends meet at the clinic.

“Having more people with the same amount of resources is essentially a cut to your budget,” said Gosar. “You end up having to find a way to spread your resources thinner, and so some might not get as full care as if [those] people who come in your door would have had access to insurance.”

Gosar said he sees the new bill mainly as a tax cut for the rich, and does not understand how it could improve healthcare.

“Removing the subsidies for people on the margins who barely qualify for health insurance subsidies as they stand so that the tax cut can be given to those that don’t need it, I don’t think that makes much sense,” he said.

The Congressional Budget Office is planning to evaluate the cost of the plan this week.

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