'This was 7 years overdue': Evers signs bill extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to cover first 12 months
WAUWATOSA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Wisconsin joined the vast majority of U.S. states when Governor Tony Evers signed a bill Wednesday extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months.
Wisconsin and Arkansas had been the only two states that did not provide postpartum coverage for low-income moms for the first 12 months after birth.
Evers was flanked by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, along with health care advocates who had pushed for years to have Wisconsin extend postpartum coverage.
Dr. Leslie Abitz, an obstetrician/gynecologist based in Sheboygan, said about 40% of all pregnant women in Wisconsin are eligible for Medicaid coverage.
She was among the medical professionals calling for Wisconsin to join nearly every other state in guaranteeing postpartum Medicaid for one full year.
"There are many, many complications that happen past 60 days postpartum," Abitz said. "Both medical complications but also postpartum depression. Also, substance use disorders- just ongoing care for complications that arise during pregnancy."
While the bill extending coverage sailed through the Senate, passing by a 32-1 vote, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) kept the bill from coming up for a vote in that chamber.
Vos had said unless 50 of the Assembly's 54 Republicans were backing the measure, it wouldn't get a vote.
Last month, State Rep. Pat Snyder (R-Weston) told CBS 58 he was one of eight GOP lawmakers to push Vos to allow a vote on that measure, along with a bill requiring health insurance companies to cover breast cancer screenings for high-risk women.
Evers noted he included the measure in all four of the two-year state budgets he proposed going back to when he took office in 2019.
"This bill was seven years overdue," Evers told reporters. "Actually, I was talking to one of the folks I was getting my picture taken [with], I said, 'I'm really happy we're able to do it. I'm really sad it took seven years.'"
One of the mothers at the signing was Tamara Naomi Thompson, a midwife who said 12 months of coverage would've saved her a lot of headaches when she had her daughter in 2021.
"In the back-and-forth with insurance companies and, 'How are we gonna afford all this?', it was extra stress," she said. "It was definitely extra stress."
Snyder and State Rep. Jessie Rodriguez (R-Oak Creek) were among the Republicans with Evers at Wednesday's signing, along with numerous Democratic lawmakers.
Rodriguez confirmed she was one of the Republicans who pushed for Vos to let the bill come to the floor for a vote and to ensure there'd be 50 Republicans on board.
"I wouldn't say we had to twist arms," she said. "I would say we just did a lot of discussions and a lot of talking, and ultimately, [Vos] agreed that this was something that was important to all of us, but also important to a lot of women in the state of Wisconsin."
Thompson maintained advocates' eventual success should send a message to others fighting for changes that haven't yet happened.
"Everyday people," she said. "Who see something wrong or see something missing, have an opportunity to use their voice to speak up and speak out and show up and be present and say there's something missing from our system. There's something missing from what we have available to us."