Health Insurance as a Public Good

Travis Willert was born in Casper, Wyoming, and raised in the time-warp town of Jeffrey City—where hay still gets stacked by hand and change moves at a glacial pace. At nine years old, he took his first summer job helping family friends pick up hay bales along the Sweetwater River. Most of his childhood was spent on horseback, chasing cattle across the Red Desert, working the kind of long days that shape a person early.

When he was thirteen, his family moved to Albin, Wyoming. There, he continued working on the family ranch and for neighboring ranchers until graduating high school in 2002. After graduation, he went into construction, but a severe accident shifted the course of his life. Thirteen hundred pounds of steel fell from a flatbed trailer and landed on his shoulders, breaking his back. Doctors told him he might never be physically active again. Recovery was long—wheelchair to walker, walker to cane, cane to two feet.

As soon as he could move, he got on a plane and traveled overseas to do missions work. That was the beginning of a lifelong love for travel. Since then, Travis has spent time in Asia, Australia, Africa, Mexico, and Central America— chasing meaning, growth, and perspective.

After returning from his early travels, Travis got involved with the CSU swing performance team and began working as a junior high ministry director for a large church. It was during this time that swing dancing became more than a hobby (and a way to meet girls ) —it became the key to his full recovery. What the doctors said he’d never do again, dance brought back. It also helped bridge the slight social awkwardness that came from being homeschooled most of his life.

Eventually, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and spent nearly eight years as a professional dance instructor—turning something that healed him into a livelihood that changed the lives of others.

In 2018, Travis returned to Wyoming to spend a summer with family. Time and savings always go faster than expected—so he decided to stick around. He met his wife and they’ve been building their lives in Wyoming ever since.

During the COVID years, he worked as an agricultural mill supervisor in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was steady. When a friend reached out about a project to support self-employed professionals, Travis saw an opportunity. He started sending them content—free work, no expectations—just the belief that if you want to build something with someone, you go first and offer something of value. They hired him in under 3 months.

That relationship turned into several years of work supporting a worker-owned cooperative focused on benefits for independent workers. Along the way, Travis realized he genuinely enjoyed the world of insurance, compliance, and the often-overlooked systems that help people stay protected when life gets unpredictable. That realization led him to become an independent insurance agent, specializing in life and health.

In February 2025, Travis and his wife welcomed their first child, a daughter named Scarlet Quinn. His wife, originally from West Africa, became a U.S. citizen in late 2024 and now serves as the assistant to the Wyoming Supreme Court Administrator.