Gov. Tony Evers signed SB 23, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 102 on Wednesday, officially making Wisconsin the 49th state to provide a year of coverage for postpartum mothers on Medicaid. 

“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m darn proud we got it done,” Evers, who signed the bill at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee, said in a statement. 

Evers first proposed Wisconsin submit a waiver to the federal government to extend Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months in his 2019 state budget, but years of legislative gridlock on the issue made Wisconsin the second to last state to make the change. 

According to KFF, the Medicaid program pays for about four in 10 births in the U.S. and federal law had required states to provide Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers through 60 days. The American Rescue Plan Act gave states the option to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months, and most states took steps towards expansion.

“We knew from the get-go that getting this passed was an uphill battle, but we also weren’t going to let partisanship or politics stop us from continuing our work to build support for this important proposal, because we know just how high the stakes are,” Evers said in a statement. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), who is retiring, was the main reason for the hold up. Articulating his opposition to the expansion, which he previously refused to bring to the floor, he said he was opposed to expanding “welfare.” A group of Republican lawmakers, including lead authors Sen. Jesse James (R-Thorp) and Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston), lobbied for Vos to let the bill through as Democratic lawmakers applied pressure through procedural moves to try and force votes on the legislation. A breakthrough came the night before Assembly lawmakers’ final regular floor session this year. 

The bill passed in the Assembly 95-1. It passed the Senate 32-1. Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers) and Sen. Chris Kapenga (Delafield) were the sole opposing votes.

The expanded coverage, which will be available starting on July 1, means low-income mothers on Medicaid and their babies, who automatically get a year of coverage, will have Medicaid coverage for the same length of time. The only state in the U.S. left that has not implemented the expansion is Arkansas. 

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, about half of pregnancy-related deaths occur in the postpartum period and 95% of those deaths are preventable. Black mothers are more than twice as likely as their white, non-Hispanic peers to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

“Research has shown us that expanding postpartum coverage leads to improved maternal and birth outcomes, thanks to more folks being able to access the care they need when they need it — and without breaking the bank,” Evers said. “Now more than ever, we should be working to make healthcare more affordable and more accessible, not making it more expensive and harder for folks — including new moms and families — to get the care they need.”