Pregnant moms and babies in several Oakland and Wayne County communities may soon be eligible for thousands of dollars in cash aid, no strings attached.
Rx Kids, the public-private partnership program that gives families $1,500 in pregnancy and $500 a month during either the first six months or year of a child’s life, will soon be expanding to Royal Oak Township and Hazel Park, as well as six currently unspecified communities in Wayne County, according to the program’s director.
“We are waiting for [the] Wayne County Commission to have a meeting, and then we'll be able to share the names of those communities,” said Dr. Mona Hanna, director of Rx Kids and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, at a press conference on Wednesday. “And we're also closely working with the city of Ypsilanti and the city of Saginaw that have raised some money, but not enough money to launch the program.”
Rx Kids began last year in Flint as an anti-poverty initiative aimed at improving maternal and infant health. Since then, organizers say it’s distributed more than $13 million dollars to more than 3,000 families in Flint, Kalamazoo, Pontiac, five counties in the eastern Upper Peninsula, and most recently Clare County in central Michigan. There are no income restrictions, but each community must raise local funding (either from private foundations, city or county funds, or some combination) to match state dollars. The state, in turn, uses money received through federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grants.
The programs in Royal Oak Township and Hazel Park “will build on the success that Rx Kids has had in Pontiac since it was launched there in May,” said Oakland County spokesperson Kathy Gray via email. “As of mid-August, 319 Pontiac families have signed up and 176 babies have been born. Surveys have shown that Pontiac families have been spending the money on baby supplies, food, utilities, rent and clothing.”
Few details were available about Wayne County, however. “We are excited about the rollout of RX Kids in Wayne County,” said Wayne County interim health department director Kennyle Johnson in a statement today. “We do not have a launch date because the project is awaiting final approval.”
Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown and the Saginaw mayor and city council did not return requests for comment by publication deadline.
Asked whether the current state budget impasse could impact funding for the program, Republican State Senator John Damoose (whose district includes the part of the eastern Upper Peninsula) said it “affects everything, frankly, right now.”
“The bottom line is, we are at an impasse,” Damoose said at the press conference Wednesday. “The biggest thing I'm supporting in this year's budget is continuing this program. I don't believe that we're going to get all that we're looking for, which is to roll this out statewide this year. But as long as we can continue to support it, this is something that's a matter of, what are the priorities of the state? And to me, this is a real priority.”
Six months and $800,000 in the Upper Peninsula
Residents of Alger, Chippewa, Luce, Mackinac, and Schoolcraft Counties have been eligible for Rx Kids since March of this year, with families receiving both the $1,500 in pregnancy and $500 during the first six months of the child’s life. Since then, more than 300 families have enrolled, mostly during pregnancy. Some 189 babies (or 80% of babies born to residents of those counties from March through June of this year) are now part of the program, with some $800,000 distributed, according to the program.
About 25% of those enrolled in the U.P. are Native American, organizers said, and 65% of participants surveyed said the program “made it easier to access healthcare.” Another 47% said they experienced a “financial shock” (like a job loss or car repairs) during the prenatal or postpartum period, with 72% of those reporting they “used Rx Kids payments to mitigate the financial shock.”
Transportation issues can be significant in rural areas where the nearest prenatal care or delivery hospital is hours away, said Karen Senkus, health officer at the Chippewa County Health Department.
“I have heard many, many parents say that they are using their money to either get their car fixed [or] to buy new tires,” she said. People have better access to food [and] can get to those appointments [or] can do other things with their families that they may not be able to do because they didn't have gas money or their car wasn't working.”
In Flint, researchers have found the program has led to more prenatal care and fewer neonatal intensive care unit admissions, Hanna said, as well as a decrease in interactions with Child Protective Services.
“We're increasing the detection of pregnancy-related conditions like gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension, because those things are being caught earlier,” she said. “So we have less premature babies, and we have less low-birth weight babies.” (Specific data about those findings isn’t available yet, an Rx Kids spokesperson said, but is expected to be part of a published journal article in the near future.)
The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians also announced a $200,000 donation to Rx Kids Wednesday, with Chairman Austin Lowes saying it provides “real, immediate relief for families when they need it most.”
