Here & Now

Sen. Joan Ballweg on Medicaid support for postpartum mothers

Frederica Freyberg:

A Republican-authored bill with a number of co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle would expand postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year. Under current state law, medical assistance known as BadgerCare in Wisconsin, is available to those with an income up to 300% of the federal poverty level. This bill, if passed, would seek permission from the federal government to expand the same coverage for 10 additional months. “Here & Now” producer Marisa Wojcik spoke with the bill’s author, Republican Senator and Majority Caucus Vice Chair Joan Ballweg to learn more.

Marisa Wojcik:

Senator Ballweg, thanks for doing this.

Joan Ballweg:

Very good. Happy to be with you.

Marisa Wojcik:

I first want to ask, why is it necessary to extend Medicaid benefits to postpartum mothers up to a year after giving birth?

Joan Ballweg:

Absolutely. So what we’ve heard from the advocates for that population of folks is that the continuity of care is something that we’re really concerned with. Many times through pregnancy, there are health conditions that individuals may see are exacerbated during their pregnancy and so we want to continue to have those folks monitored and those changes don’t necessarily go away after 60 days, which is what current state law is. Also, there are some things that can come up a little bit later that are never usually in the first 60 days, such as depression issues, which many times aren’t popping up until either three to six months later. The other thing we want to make sure is this youngster is getting off to a good start because they’re being covered by that first year. So we don’t want new mothers to have the stress of having to figure out how to continue their care if they are no longer covered. And so it just causes additional stress for that care and we want to have new moms in their first year to be the best possible parents and be able to focus on that little person.

Marisa Wojcik:

And what kind of benefits will this give both pregnant and postpartum mothers?

Joan Ballweg:

Well, it won’t make any changes for pregnant women or the first 60 days because in Wisconsin, we do have a pretty rich benefit with coverage of 306% of the federal poverty limit. You go past the 60 days, then it would fall back to what everybody else is at 100%. So we have this more generous means of taking care of our postpartum moms. So that would be the biggest difference so that they would be able to continue with the healthcare providers and the programs that they had set up during the pregnancy and next couple of months postpartum.

Marisa Wojcik:

Wisconsin Republicans generally have not been in favor of any Medicaid expansion, talking about growing entitlement programs. Does this have broad Republican support in the Senate and Assembly?

Joan Ballweg:

It does have broad Republican support and it has broad support overall. We have 66 co-sponsors to our legislation this year. I think this has been a bit of a learning curve for some of our members to understand what that relationship is and how this can strengthen families. It’s something that I’ve been working on for most of the years that I’ve been in the Legislature, strengthening families, strengthening that bond, understanding that the beginning years of a child’s development are so important moving forward. We have a very broad coalition of sponsors from not only the Legislature, from sponsorship around Wisconsin. It’s just a very wide group of folks that have really come to understand the importance of the long-term care of moms. And the United States and Wisconsin are not doing a great job when it comes to maternal health. There was just a new CDC report that came out that United States is even falling farther behind when it comes to developed countries, and Wisconsin is in the same condition. So I think people are starting to realize that it’s time to provide this help.

Marisa Wojcik:

That CDC report came out recently but showed that in 2021, the United States saw the worst maternal mortality rates in the country’s history. So without the ability to seek abortions for the health of the mother in Wisconsin, is this legislation enough to take on these significant mortality rates?

Joan Ballweg:

Well, we’re talking about mortality rates for new moms, for people that have gone through pregnancy, and that’s our focus. So for these babies that are coming along, how do we keep their families strong? How do we keep mom in the best health means as possible moving forward, and to avoid some of those issues that may have been exacerbated by the pregnancy: hypertension, cardiac issues, all of those kinds of things. We have women nowadays that are interested in starting their families a little bit later in life than maybe we have before and, of course, those are folks that have more experience in life and maybe have a little bit more health concerns along the way, so I think we need all we can do to support those folks.

Marisa Wojcik:

What do you say to your Republican colleagues who aren’t on board with this?

Joan Ballweg:

Mmm. Well, I think the number one thing I try to point out is that we are pro-life. We do see that we want to support new families, encourage folks that want to build their families, and how do we do that in a productive way? Be able to help those folks that are a little bit lower on the economic strata, to provide them with some help that they can grow their families, grow their financial support, you know, moving forward. So this is a good thing overall for Wisconsin, for families. I just think it’s the right thing to do.