It is residence to Hyannis, a small village with out stoplights, the place contemporary scorching espresso is free, everybody waves and, in 1931, a information report named it "The Richest City in America."
Cattle are king and much outnumber folks on this county, babies journey horses as comfortably as they stroll, and John Wayne's loyal stunt man grew up right here, ranching. Roping competitions and pie socials assist neighbors in disaster, and folks make further money promoting truckloads of lifeless coyotes to fur merchants.
One in three residents, or 33% of the under-65 inhabitants, purchased insurance coverage on Obamacare exchanges, official information from a 12 months in the past present. The nationwide common is simply 5%, which raises the query: In a spot so tied to the Reasonably priced Care Act, why would folks again the person who vowed to repeal it? Would not that appear a vote in opposition to the neighborhood's personal pursuits?
"Folks might imagine we're sluggish," explains one man, "however we're not silly."
Of their world, one they really feel is ignored by these in large cities or on the coasts, their actions make good sense. You may't probably perceive, they are saying, except you've got lived right here. I got down to attempt.
Breaking the information
Simply point out politics to a gaggle of males unwinding over fuel station espresso and the insults come quick and fierce, political correctness be damned.
"The black bomb" is how one rancher describes Trump's predecessor. "This man got here out of the sewers of Chicago. How might he be good?"
The rancher's not about to present his identify to somebody with the "Clinton Information Community" -- what he calls CNN -- however he and his associates are completely happy to rail in opposition to the previous administration. Obamacare is true up there on the record of issues gone flawed, they are saying.
The palms they lengthen for shakes are tough and callused, symbols of how onerous folks right here work. They're self-sufficient and do not like being informed what to do any greater than they like taking handouts. They maintain themselves, and one another, and do not want authorities stepping in to muck issues up.
That their county leads the nation in Obamacare enrollees is information to everybody I meet.
"In the event that they're on it, they don't seem to be saying," one man theorizes. Individuals are on it solely as a result of the federal government "put a gun to folks's heads," presents one other. And simply because they're on it, they warn, doesn't suggest they prefer it.
No different selection
Strolling by Hyannis, the county seat, I hear tales of skyrocketing premiums, deductibles that may't be met and brewing resentment. If folks do not wish to pay the penalty for not having insurance coverage, which is taken out of the tax refunds they depend on, they're trapped.
What they inform me may give pause to Obamacare consultants, who say the Reasonably priced Care Act is difficult, is tough to navigate and infrequently leaves folks misinformed about prices and selections. However these are the experiences and perceptions of how the regulation has performed out in Grant County.
Some have appreciated newfound protection: With it, they had been capable of maintain longstanding issues, like the girl with a prolapsing uterus who might lastly have a hysterectomy. However most individuals I meet complain that they are on Obamacare solely as a result of they don't have any different selection.
Until they work for the varsity, the county, the railroad or the electrical firm -- and the overwhelming majority of individuals in cattle nation do not -- these aren't Individuals lucky to be coated by an employer's insurance coverage plan.
Some might need been so fortunate up to now, however that luck ran out when the Reasonably priced Care Act got here in, they are saying.
Ginger Fouse curates the Grant County museum within the county courthouse. She's dashing to make a health care provider's appointment in Alliance, 60 miles away and residential to the closest hospital. Earlier than she goes, she makes her emotions about Obamacare clear: "Nothing however horseshit."
Fouse's husband is a ranch hand, they usually used to get protection by the ranch. However as soon as Obamacare hit the scene, she says, the rancher believed everybody might maintain themselves. Solely drawback is, Fouse says, she and her husband can not afford the premiums. In order that they're now coated by nothing.
"We're not going to stop consuming to pay insurance coverage," she says earlier than heading out the door.
Ellen White, a museum volunteer, steps in to introduce me to the world she's all the time referred to as residence.
She exhibits off aged pictures: the previous city corridor the place they used to bounce, pictures from the 1949 blizzard that worn out cattle and snapshots from the primary old-timer rodeo.
A person's barbed-wire assortment is on show, as is memorabilia from the deceased navy physician who delivered White and numerous different locals.
The spotlight, although, is a set of keepsakes from the late Chuck Hayward, who took his horses to Hollywood and labored as John Wayne's stuntman. Included are motion pictures, the saddle Hayward used whereas filming in Afghanistan and wood stirrups from a shoot in Chile. There's additionally a saddle mentioned to have been utilized by Wayne himself throughout the filming of "True Grit."
White, 69, describes a time she needs youthful generations would admire. She grew up on a ranch south of Ashby, an unincorporated neighborhood simply west of Hyannis. She, like so many others, rode a horse to her nation college.
She had three older brothers, and in the event that they informed her she could not do one thing, she proved she might. She was capable of drive a workforce of horses by age 5 and helped milk 12 to 15 cows each morning and evening.
Life was powerful, but it surely made individuals who they're. They labored for all the pieces that they had.
Generally she watches HGTV and is shocked by home hunters purchasing for $500,000 properties.
"They will pay on these homes eternally and ever," she says. "We did not purchase something except you may pay money for it."
It is that type of accountability and practicality that programs by this ranching neighborhood's veins.
Assessing life right here
Roughly 150 ranches dot the county, most of them handed down by households. It is an space the place the primary homesteaders arrived within the 1880s, tried to farm and failed. The sandy soil labored in opposition to them however proved a candy spot for cattlemen, who snatched up tracts of land.
The ranches are non-public and sit far off the primary roads, in some instances miles off, and are unimaginable to evaluate by driving previous. Ask a rancher concerning the dimension of his land or his herd, and he'll preserve these numbers to himself.
The query is uncouth, explains Dan Vinton, a lifetime rancher and longtime county commissioner; it is like prying into an individual's wage.
"We have now sufficient grass to feed the cows," says Vinton, 66. "We have now sufficient cows to maintain the grass."
Over chicken-fried steak within the Hyannis Resort Restaurant, one in every of a handful of companies on Predominant Road, Vinton and fellow Commissioner Tom White -- who labored within the feed enterprise and is married to Ellen, the museum volunteer -- regale me with their very own tales of rising up in Grant County.
They did not have electrical energy until the 1950s, acquired up and went to sleep together with the solar and wish to say they "had operating water since you needed to run and get it." They took Saturday evening baths in the identical water utilized by their siblings.
"We did not know we had been pungent little buggers as a result of all of us smelled the identical," White, 71, says with fun.
Life right here has all the time made sense to them, regardless of the challenges. When White wanted chemo and radiation to deal with most cancers a pair months again, he and his spouse merely rented an condominium close to the hospital in Scottsbluff, greater than 100 miles away, for 5 weeks. They will journey to Denver for his upcoming surgical procedure.
They don't seem to be metropolis people and do not wish to be. Vinton drives that time residence when he admits he and his spouse have cell telephones solely to allow them to discover one another after they get separated within the Walmart, which is nicely over an hour from residence.
Vinton's son works on the household ranch and is on Obamacare. His of us and the Whites aren't on it themselves, however they look ahead to the day when it is abolished. They hear folks complain about charges rising and name this system "ridiculous."
Not eager to be dependent
A 31-year-old girl sits within the restaurant beside her towheaded boy. To her, Obamacare is frustrating, and she or he unleashes her frustration.
She's a university grad who does her analysis. When she and her husband acquired married, they picked out a coverage and had been completely happy. However then, Obamacare modified all the pieces.
They may not afford the non-public plan they preferred. The variety of firms she might select from on the Obamacare alternate dwindled; solely two selections exist in the present day. They switched to 1 firm solely to see it get absorbed by one other. They watched their premiums and deductibles improve, together with out-of-pocket bills. They have been on 4 plans in two years.
She's married to a rancher, and in ranching, it is onerous to estimate how a lot an individual will earn annually. When cows promote excessive, ranchers do nicely. However, as in any market, the numbers fluctuate. One 12 months, her household may make $20,000; one other $50,000, she says. Monetary uncertainty makes planning a crapshoot.
A shocking factor occurred, although, when she acquired pregnant along with her son. All of a sudden, she was informed she certified for Medicaid, a notion that made her Republican head spin.
"I wish to be chargeable for myself. I do not wish to be dependent," says the girl, who did not need her identify used. "However you priced me out of what I did to maintain myself and compelled me into authorities help."
Pregnancies solely final so lengthy, although, and she or he would not meet the Nebraska Medicaid for fogeys. Meaning she's again to fretting about what this 12 months's premiums might be.
"I've to get knocked up," she says, half joking, half disgusted. "Mama wants dental care."
Followers turned foes
Throughout the road within the grocery retailer, I spot Clarissa "Casey" Sanchez working behind the counter. She was a fan of Obamacare at first.
Paying $50 a month for herself was each doable and a supply of consolation for the 30-year-old worker.
However then she acquired married. With their mixed gross incomes, she says, her month-to-month premium jumped to greater than $600, they usually make an excessive amount of to qualify for Medicaid. Her husband has his personal non-public coverage, however she says she will be able to't be part of it as a result of she's pregnant. He purchased the low-premium coverage earlier than Obamacare, and it would not embody maternity protection.
Sanchez is decided to maintain herself however feels punished for attempting. She's 13 weeks pregnant, scared and crossing her fingers.
"I am going with out insurance coverage and hope Trump does one thing fast," she tells me.
Close by, working at a money register, Julie Braun, 36, chimes in: "I acquired married to get off Obamacare."
She, too, as soon as loved low premiums -- simply $30 a month -- solely to see them soar. She wanted two ankle surgical procedures final 12 months, and with a excessive deductible, copays, therapies, braces and boots -- which are not coated -- she says she's staring down a $20,000 invoice she will be able to't pay. She makes $9 an hour and even along with her husband's wage plans to file for medical chapter.
Although Braun and her husband had meant to marry sooner or later, they moved up their marriage ceremony date by a pair years. He teaches within the college and has good advantages, and that was all she wanted to hurry down the aisle.
'A rip-off and racket'
Folks right here say they've had it with Washington and "mealy-mouthed politicians," the kind who communicate fairly however say nothing, one native explains. For this reason they backed Trump en masse. They like that he has a enterprise report and belief that he can do higher by them.
"The person did not get wealthy as he's by being silly," says one man who refuses to present his identify however pulls me apart to inform his personal story.
He is 50 and has by no means paid for medical insurance. He calls the well being care system "a rip-off and a racket." When he had a cracked tooth not way back -- the primary dental drawback he'd ever had -- the dentist informed him it will price greater than $four,000 to repair. "For one tooth!" he exclaims.
So he appeared on the dentist and requested how a lot it will price to tug out all his enamel and provides him pretend ones as an alternative. It was half the worth, so he got here again together with his checkbook and had each tooth yanked.
He now says he is going through a stiff penalty for not having insurance coverage, which enrages him.
"I pay for my very own medical, and now I've to pay for another person's?" he says. "Do not get me flawed; I wish to do my half. However when does my half cease?"
'Backyard of Eden'
The Sandhills Oil Firm fuel station -- simply "the station" to locals -- is a well-liked gathering spot the place folks gab over espresso.
Robin Jameson, 56, sits within the nook workplace. She moved right here to supervise the station, one in every of a number of in a household enterprise portfolio.
"It felt like residence instantly," she says. She likes how folks be careful for each other, donating propane and groceries to these in want, and she or he provides again in her personal manner.
An previous rancher strolls into her workplace, looking for assist deciphering a bank card invoice. Retired ranchers down the highway go to every time their grandson competes in out-of-town rodeos, so she will be able to set them up on a pc to look at the live-stream.
One of many regulars at a station desk is Woody Thompson, 76. He landed on this space greater than 60 years in the past, when he got here out of the Mud Bowl in search of work. He says he was introduced right here by "a drunk and a horse thief."
For many years, he labored on ranches. It has been a life wealthy in independence and nice neighbors, the kind who as soon as saved reselling a white leghorn rooster to lift cash for a buddy dying of mind most cancers. These qualities made even the hardest days worthwhile. Digging harnesses out of snow drifts, using miles and miles in 30-below temperatures, the winter of '78-'79 when the bottom by no means noticed lower than Three toes of snow -- he would not take again his time right here for something.
"It won't be heaven, but it surely's the Backyard of Eden," Thompson says.
A coronary heart drawback ultimately took him away from ranching. Twice a month, he drives 70 miles south to see his Denver heart specialist, who meets him in Ogallala -- the closest city on the closest interstate. (Locals like that the interstate runs by flat Nebraska, permitting them to maintain their hills to themselves.)
Thompson, who moved to Hyannis 15 years in the past, palms over one in every of his enterprise playing cards. He is now a touring rep for an organization that performs castrations. With a pair golf balls in a bag, he demonstrates how they're achieved.
Like so many individuals on this county, he says that Trump's enterprise know-how spoke to him -- even when he would not suspect that he'd just like the man personally.
"I've three daughters," Thompson says. "If Megyn Kelly had been my daughter, I'd have beat the hell out of him."
Respecting the regulation
A pair blocks uphill, within the previous courthouse, I discover Christee Haney. She's in her second time period as county clerk and retains official information in the identical books and logs utilized by clerks within the late 1800s.
When she was elected seven years in the past, it was to fill a number of places of work. In an space as rural as this, she's greater than the nation clerk. She's additionally the county assessor, the registrar of deeds, the clerk of the courtroom and the election commissioner.
Occasion registration would not dictate votes right here, the place 81% of registered voters forged ballots in November. She has 40 registered Democrats, she says, however solely 20 folks voted for Hillary Clinton. Haney's cousin is one instance; she's a Democrat who voted for Trump and refused to again Obama, whom she by no means trusted.
Haney, 54, considers the excessive charge of Obamacare enrollment in Grant County and presents this: Individuals are abiding by the regulation, easy as that.
"It is a matter of respect out right here, and that is what we have all taught our youngsters," she says.
The Ok-12 college in Hyannis, which serves a number of counties and has fewer than 150 college students, is a supply of delight right here. The teacher-to-student ratio is 1-to-9, the principal tells me. College students are greater than cowboys and cowgirls: They take a look at above the nationwide common, are given their very own laptops, flourish within the arts and play sports activities that draw the neighborhood collectively.
Mother and father who've raised youngsters right here brag about them getting scholarships; one proud dad says his daughter turned down Stanford, MIT and Yale as a result of she needed to be a Cornhusker. She graduated from the College of Nebraska with good grades.
Folks right here might not have what large cities provide, however that fits them. When Haney takes a day to run errands in Ogallala, inhabitants four,570, she finds the visitors and all of the folks exhausting.
She and others right here favor this quiet life with wide-open areas and fewer stresses. They don't seem to be going through a drug epidemic and don't fret about crime. They go away their keys within the ignition and do not lock their doorways. They do not have a homeless drawback and do not fret about unemployment. If anybody desires to work, there's work available.
The oldsters in Grant County want folks elsewhere would take accountability in their very own lives and cease blaming others for his or her issues.
"Folks on welfare in large cities make more cash not working than we do working," says one girl. She's not the one one I meet who believes this.
Not eager to go with out
In a small home on the north facet of the tracks, the place the railroad carries coal from Wyoming and Montana, Terry Keys feeds and burps his Three-month-old son, Deacon.
The child should not be this previous. He was born two months early, when extreme preeclampsia despatched Terry, 34, and his spouse, Trish, on an emergency journey to Lincoln on the finish of October. Trish and Deacon needed to keep there for a month till it was secure to carry the child residence. Terry, who helps drill and repair wells, drove greater than 300 miles every option to be part of them on weekends.
Trish, the village's 37-year-old salon proprietor, curls up within the chair beside her husband and son and recounts an odyssey she's nonetheless processing.
The couple, each Trump supporters, had been uninsured when Obamacare got here alongside. The primary 12 months, they paid a penalty of $90. However fearing the prospect of steeper fines, they signed up. With the Reasonably priced Care Act, they might buy what had beforehand evaded them for about $150 a month.
"It was cheap, and we did not have insurance coverage earlier than," Trish says. It helped them, she says, till it did not.
She'd been informed their coverage would cowl Deacon and the exorbitant neonatal intensive care bills for the primary 30 days of his life "it doesn't matter what." However she says the insurance coverage firm stopped the household's coverage with out discover. Trish and Terry came upon solely after they stepped right into a pharmacy in Lincoln for flu pictures and had been informed that they had no protection.
A panicked cellphone name later, she was informed they certified for Medicaid and will apply, which meant a flurry of paperwork and paperwork. After the trauma of getting a preemie and being caught in a metropolis removed from the world she is aware of, Trish got here residence to the stress of preventing a $104,000 invoice. She nonetheless is not certain who's accountable -- Medicaid or the insurance coverage firm -- and solely is aware of she and Terry will not have the ability to pay it.
"There must be a less complicated manner. I really feel like they've overcomplicated all the pieces," she says.
"It is mind-boggling to me," she says earlier than turning her gaze to her son, who lastly weighs 9 kilos. "Now that this has occurred, you do not wish to go with out insurance coverage."
She hopes to nonetheless have the ability to afford it. And like others on this distant heartland county, she trusts that her new president will not let her down.
CNN's Sonam Vashi contributed to this report.
