Thumbs down to the Wyoming Legislature.

We feel the decision last week to reject an expansion of Medicaid was a serious error. The Senate voted 19-11 to not move the SHARE plan forward, killing it for another session.

Gov. Matt Mead, no fan of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, supported this proposed expansion. Health care officials, including Powell Valley Healthcare CEO Bill Patten, felt it was a good idea, despite legitimate concerns about the ACA.

“We feel the responsible course of action is to accept the program as defined today and then adjust to any new rules that come down the road in the future,” Patten told the Powell Tribune Monday.

He said the very future of hospitals, especially in rural areas, where they provide care without hope of full compensation, is at stake. This proposed expansion could have meant up to $120 million in health-care dollars for Wyoming.

But the Wyoming Legislature pulled the plug on the expansion. Thousands of people across the Cowboy State will feel the impact of this. Mead said he felt the SHARE plan, developed by the state Department of Health in cooperation with federal agencies, had merit.

“We must continue to tackle the tough issues around health care — access, costs and insurance,” Mead said in a statement Friday. “We must recognize what health care means to individuals and to our economy. While I respect different views, the fact is today we are left with working poor without coverage. We are left with Wyoming taxpayer dollars funding health care of other states. We are left without a solution for $200 million of uncompensated care that our hospitals must absorb and pass on to the rest of our citizens and we are rejecting $120 million  meant for Wyoming.”

He said the time to battle the ACA is past, and we agree. Mead said the Legislature must discover “a meaningful way to operate within the ACA to address Wyoming’s health care needs.”

The governor’s diagnosis is correct. Medicaid expansion in our state has expired for another year but it can, and should, be revived.

Thumbs up, on the other hand, to the Legislature for the withdrawal and apparent end of an effort to allow public boards to hold votes in closed-door sessions.

The bill, offered up by Rep. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, would have permitted city councils, school boards and other entities to cast ballots and make decisions in executive sessions. It was swiftly opposed by the Wyoming Press Association, and last week we called for a very public end to this ill-considered proposal.

That’s just what happened on Feb. 5, as Nicholas asked to have the bill removed from consideration. We hope for no other appearance of a bill which would contemplate allowing the public’s business to be conducted in private.