For thousands of low-income new moms in Wisconsin, the health insurance clock just stopped ticking quite so fast. Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday, signed a bipartisan bill that stretches postpartum BadgerCare coverage from 60 days to a full 12 months, closing a long-criticized gap and keeping many mothers insured through their baby’s first year, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Evers held the signing at Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee, surrounded by lawmakers, advocates and parents who had pushed for the change, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. At the event, Department of Health Services Secretary Kirsten Johnson praised the new law and highlighted several attendees who had shared stories about what losing coverage two months after delivery can look like in real life.
What the Law Changes
The bill, AB 97/SB 23, expands postpartum Medicaid eligibility so that mothers who qualified for BadgerCare during pregnancy stay covered for 12 months after delivery, instead of aging out after 60 days. That lines up a mother’s coverage with the 12-month window infants already receive, as outlined by the ACLU of Wisconsin.
State documents note that prenatal BadgerCare eligibility runs up to roughly 306% of the federal poverty level. After birth, though, eligibility has historically dropped to a lower income threshold, triggering coverage “churn” that the Department of Health Services has warned can disrupt care for new mothers. DHS program materials lay out how that drop-off works and why it has been a recurring concern for health officials.
The legislation sailed through the State Senate 32-1 in April 2025 and cleared the Assembly 95-1 in February 2026, a level of bipartisan agreement that has been rare on health policy this session. The Senate vote was covered by Wisconsin Public Radio, and the Assembly action was detailed in a statement reported by WisPolitics.
Cost and Who Benefits
Projections from the Department of Health Services, cited in news coverage, estimate that about 5,020 additional women will qualify for extended postpartum benefits. The state’s share of the annual cost is pegged at roughly $7.3 million, or about $307 per covered woman per month, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A separate estimate from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, used during debate, projected the eventual state cost at about $9.4 million once the program is fully phased in, as reported by ProPublica.
Why Supporters Pushed It
Supporters argue those extra months of coverage are not a luxury, they are basic preventive care. The extension is expected to help new mothers stay connected to primary care, mental health services and substance use treatment during a period when medical risks are still serious, even if the baby shower balloons have long since deflated.
Lawmakers and health officials pointed to 63 pregnancy-related deaths in Wisconsin from 2020 through 2022, with about one-third occurring more than two months after birth. They used that statistic to underscore that health dangers do not end at the six-week checkup. That framing, and the broad coalition that lined up behind the bill, were highlighted in coverage from WisPolitics and in state DHS materials.
What Comes Next
Evers has tried to get a yearlong postpartum extension into every budget he has proposed since 2019, so Wednesday’s signing was a long time coming for his administration. The Department of Health Services will now finalize implementation guidance and work through any remaining federal approvals needed before the changes hit the ground. Wisconsin DHS has laid out the governor’s history of backing the policy in its budget materials and program analyses, and agency rules will spell out exactly how and when eligible mothers can enroll or stay enrolled.
Backers are pitching the move as a pragmatic, bipartisan fix that keeps more mothers connected to care during a medically vulnerable year. In their view, the law’s real test will be whether it cuts preventable deaths and smooths out care for new families, not just how it looks on a budget spreadsheet.
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