Medicaid in Wisconsin: what you may be able to apply for

Wisconsin runs its family Medicaid and CHIP as one program, BadgerCare Plus, through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS); you apply through ACCESS (access.wisconsin.gov) or your county/tribal agency. 🌟 Wisconsin is unusual: it did NOT adopt the ACA adult expansion to 138% FPL, yet it still covers adults — including childless adults — up to 100% FPL (the childless-adult group is covered under a federal Section 1115 waiver), so Wisconsin has no "coverage gap." Wisconsin's official 2026 income table sets the adult limit at exactly 100% FPL, children up to 306% FPL (with a premium above the 201% FPL threshold), and pregnant people up to 306% FPL. 🔴 On immigration status (safety-critical, from the BadgerCare Plus Eligibility Handbook P-10171, Release 26-02): full-benefit BadgerCare Plus requires U.S. citizenship or a "qualifying immigrant" status, and immigrants who arrived on or after August 22, 1996 are "subject to a five-year waiting period to receive federal benefits (including BadgerCare Plus and Medicaid), other than emergency services." 🌟 But Wisconsin has adopted the CHIPRA Section 214 / ICHIA option for BOTH lawfully present children (under 19) and pregnant people, who "may qualify for BadgerCare Plus if they are lawfully present in the U.S." without the five-year wait; refugees, asylees, those with deportation/removal withheld, Cuban-Haitian entrants, COFA citizens, trafficking victims, and others are also exempt from the five-year bar. 🔴 Did-not-find, stated honestly: unlike California or Illinois, we found no Wisconsin state-funded program giving full-scope Medicaid to undocumented adults or children — a person who is not a qualifying immigrant nor lawfully present (for example, someone who is undocumented) can receive "BadgerCare Plus Emergency Services only." 🔴🔴 A critical safety nuance: undocumented CHILDLESS ADULTS do NOT even get Emergency Services — the handbook states "Immigrants who only meet the criteria for BadgerCare Plus under the childless adults' coverage group are ineligible for Emergency Services" (because that group is waiver-funded, not state-plan Medicaid). Emergency Services (regardless of status, for an emergency medical condition including childbirth) is available to the categorically eligible: pregnant people (up to 306% FPL), children, and parents/caretakers (up to 100% FPL). 🌟 Separately, the BadgerCare Plus Prenatal Program covers prenatal care for pregnant people regardless of immigration status (including undocumented pregnant people). 🔴 Mixed-status protection: "The citizen spouse or child of an ineligible immigrant may still be eligible even though the immigrant is not," and DHS "member information cannot be shared... for immigration enforcement purposes." Applying for or receiving coverage for your children does not require the parents to have status. 🔴 A federal law change is scheduled to narrow immigrant Medicaid/CHIP eligibility effective October 1, 2026; because these rules are safety-critical and changing, verify your own household through ACCESS or your county/tribal agency.