Moms in Flint Receive Cash Aid
Dr. Mona Hanna Attisha visits with students from University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability.
In a story shared by NPR and featured on All Things Considered, Dr. Mona Hanna Attisha is again in the news. Penned by reporter Jennifer Ludden, the article details a new program co-founded and promoted by Hanna- Attisha called Rx Kids.
Rx Kids is a cash transfer program that began in the city of Flint, Michigan in January 2024. It benefits expectant mothers, regardless of income. The city has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, over 50%.
Recipients of the program begin receiving help during pregnancy. The initial $1,500 payment helps expectant mothers receive adequate prenatal care. After delivery, mothers receive $500 a month over the course of the baby’s first year, for a total of $7,500.
The idea is that the money will cover costs for diapers and formula, freeing up funds to put food on the table or pay the rent. Many new mothers must make a choice between returning to work and caring for their children themselves, and this amount, small though it may be, will make an impact.
“What happens in that first year of life can really portend your entire life course trajectory. Your brain literally doubles in size in the first 12 months,” says Hanna-Attisha in the article. In addition to her practice, she also serves as a public health professor at Michigan State University.
The article states that the United States is one of the only developed countries that doesn’t currently offer substantial child cash benefits. Studies have found such payments reduce financial hardship and food insecurity and improve mental and physical health for both mothers and children.
Ludden’s article underscores the benefits that improving finances has on a family and cites the expanded child tax credits offered during the pandemic as proof. Luke Schaefer, co-director of the program and a poverty expert at University of Michigan, agrees. “We saw food hardship dropped to the lowest level ever,” Shaefer says in the article. “And we saw credit scores actually go to the highest that they’d ever been in at the end of 2021.”
While critics worry that giving cash aid will encourage mothers not to work, evidence suggests otherwise. Hanna-Attisha and Shaefer will measure outcomes of the babies that are in the program, tracking their prenatal care, birth rates, whether fewer people move out of Flint, gun violence, voter participation, and faith in government — which took a major hit during the lead water crisis, according to the article.
The program is currently funded for three years. Sources of funding include foundations, health insurance companies and a small part of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Hanna- Attisha has heard from other places around the country who are interested in creating similar programs of their own. She was happy to learn recently that her mother received cash payments when she was born in the UK. “And my mom just shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘Of course we did,’” shared Hanna-Attisha. “Everybody got money. That was normal.”