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The Senate Committee on Housing and Human Services held a hearing on Senate Bill 309 (Substitute S-1) sponsored by Senator Sylvia Santana to discuss state control of of Rx Kids, which offers recipients in certain program service areas $ 1,500 during pregnancy and $ 500 a month for their children in their first year of life. Those receiving the money are free to use it however they like. The program is currently administered by units of MSU & U of M, and funded by private donors through the NYC 501(c)(3) non-profit GiveDirectly.
SB 309 does not (yet) expand the program service areas of Rx Kids. If the bill is enacted, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which has allocated $20 million toward Rx Kids, would become responsible for running the child allowance program.
Expanding the Rx Kids program statewide would require something on the order of $ 1 billion.
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Bills/Bill?ObjectName=2025-SB-0309
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2025-2026/billanalysis/Senate/htm/2025-SFA-0309-G.htm
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2025-2026/billanalysis/Senate/htm/2025-SFA-0309-S.htm
Michigan lawmakers push to expand Rx Kids, but does ‘no strings’ cash work?
By Eli Newman - August 12, 2025* Michigan lawmakers are weighing a plan to shift Rx Kids — a cash assistance program for pregnant women and infants — under state control
* Program officials report $100 million in commitments from public and private donors, including $20 million from the state, with more funding proposed
* Supporters cite early health gains and stress relief for families, despite new research finding no measurable developmental benefits from similar cash gifts in early childhoodA bill that would expand cash assistance for new and expecting mothers is finding a trace of bipartisan support as lawmakers consider bringing the program under state control.
The legislation comes at a time when new research is casting doubt on the effectiveness unrestricted monetary payments have in improving child development. A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that unconditional cash outlays have no “statistically significant impact” on certain outcomes, such as language skills, during a child’s first four years of life.
The Michigan Senate Committee on Housing and Human Services held a hearing Tuesday to discuss the expansion of Rx Kids, which offers recipients $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 a month for their children in their first year of life. Those receiving the money are free to use it however they like.
Under the proposal, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which has allocated $20 million toward Rx Kids, would be responsible for running the child allowance program.
Currently, the Michigan State University Pediatric Public Health Initiative runs Rx Kids in collaboration with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. The nonprofit GiveDirectly administers the program.
The bill would have the university partnership continue under a state contract and allow for “universal” eligibility within service areas, according to its sponsor Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit.
“This cash assistance helps remove economic barriers that often prevent families from obtaining necessary items, such as baby supplies, food, rent, utility bills and clothing,” Santana told the committee, where she serves as majority vice chair. “RX Kids enables at-risk families to seek regular checkups, vaccinations and necessary treatments without the stress of unaffordable cost.”
Rx Kids launched in Flint in January 2024 before expanding to Pontiac, Kalamazoo, Clare County and the eastern Upper Peninsula, where one state lawmaker touted the pilot as “stunning.”
“It’s amazing how this program brings so many people together,” said committee member Sen. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs. “Finally, we’re doing something we can all agree on.”
‘Crucial support’ for child care
Recipients of the stipend, like Celeste Lord-Timlin of Flint, describe the program as a “lifeline” that eased the financial burden of child care.
“Daycare costs us $1,300 a month,” Lord-Timlin told the committee Tuesday. “It was a stress that I really struggled with throughout the pregnancy until I heard about Rx Kids.”
Lord-Timlin said the program offered “crucial support.” She said the initial payment she received was split between buying essentials for her child, like a stroller and car seat, and covering her own graduate school tuition.
Nearly 9 in 10 participants in the program report feeling more secure in their finances, according to an internal survey, while about 66% say Rx Kids has improved health care access and health outcomes for them and their infants.
Dr. Mona Hanna, director of Rx Kids, told lawmakers the program has given $13 million to 3,000 families since launching, with $100 million in commitments from public and private donors.
By providing a “no strings attached” cash infusion during pregnancy and infancy, Hanna said nearly everyone eligible for the program takes advantage of it, helping to alleviate the health burdens of poverty in communities it operates in and allowing for better academic research there.
“We have health benefits that we’re already seeing,” said Hanna. “We are seeing a significant reduction in postpartum depression, a reduction in anxiety and a significant reduction in parental stress. We have a massive increase in prenatal care utilization.”
At what cost?
With RX Kids under the state’s purview, Michigan would face an “uncertain” cost to administer and operate the program, according to a Senate fiscal analysis, with potential “indirect costs for local units of government.”
Referencing the program’s current payment model, the Senate Fiscal Agency estimates the state’s maximum cost would be $750 million to cover 100,000 births. Payments could be reduced by limiting geographic areas covered by Rx Kids.
Santana, who made substitutions to the bill during the committee meeting, said the legislation now puts a 15% cap on the program’s administrative costs rather than 5%.
The Democratic-led Senate has approved a budget that would put an additional $58 million towards the program in the next fiscal year. The House, which has a Republican majority, has yet to approve a final plan.
Program officials dismissed concerns about the cost of administering the program.
“As we continue to grow, that administration gets even smaller with more opportunities of scale,” said Hanna.
Ahead of the meeting, the director of research for the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy touted the cash allowance program as a model worth replicating to “reduce waste, increase efficiency, boost effectiveness and decrease costs” in government.
Officials with the Michigan League for Public Policy, the Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health, the Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Council of Michigan Foundations also voiced their support for the legislation.
While Rx Kids finds local support, the study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research is giving fodder to critics of cash assistance plans.
The “Baby’s First Years” study is purported to be the first in the US to trace the effects of unconditional cash gifts to low-income new mothers.
Greg J. Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine and one of six researchers who led the study, told the New York Times he and his team were “surprised” by the outcome.
The study points to the COVID-19 pandemic and periods of high inflation as conditions that may have affected results, and that cash alone may not be enough to affect change in young children.
“Additional research is needed to shed light on these various possibilities and to replicate these findings,” the study concludes. “Data from future study waves – which will include direct assessments of child development after a full six years of monthly unconditional cash support – will provide the opportunity to test for emergent impacts later in life.”
Related:
Michigan’s $55M experiment with guaranteed income begins with Flint moms
Flint Offers New Mothers $ 7,500 During The First Year
At least it wouldn't involve the feds...yet.
I don't know if I want the state government taking over this.
@pattie I'm with you there. Only I'm not so sure there's no federal involvement, especially given the large portion of MDHHS budget that merely passes through the state from federal spending.
Still, Mackinac Center's recent email casts a different light on hands-free administration.
Rx Kids is a Michigan program that grants pregnant women $1,500 and $500/month for six months after birth — no strings attached. Unlike traditional welfare, it trusts families to decide how best to spend the money.
Early results show better health outcomes and less red tape, suggesting direct cash aid can be a more efficient, dignified way to fight poverty.
It’s a lesson for policymakers: rethink how we help the disadvantaged by putting more faith in the people we’re trying to serve.
Follow the status of the bill on MichiganVotes.
Trust families to decide...
If we're going to give financial aid, simple giving makes sense to me. But a universal program is not compatible with a free people. Some kind of limit is necessary, starting with means-testing.
As with all "free" money with political incentives, limits should never be assumed.
Payouts have already doubled, according to the Detroit News. Increases are built into the state's commitment. And city eligibility is based upon "disadvantage" - leftist code for its voter base. (Bold font is mine.)
Senate bill would expand unique cash assistance program for babies, parents statewide
By Julia Cardi | August 13, 2025A direct cash assistance program for new parents pioneered in Flint last year could get a statewide expansion with its own state budget allocation under a new bill working through the state Senate.
Co-founded by Dr. Mona Hanna, the Genesee County pediatrician who played a key role in sounding the alarm on the Flint water crisis, Rx Kids gives $1,500 to parents during pregnancy and $500 each month for either the first six or 12 months of the baby's life, depending on the amount of funding the program raises in each specific community where it operates.
The founders of Rx Kids, which officially started last year, say the program targets the time period when families tend to face the most poverty, because of leaving work to give birth, scant paid family leave and the expenses of having a child.
Hanna testified during a Senate committee Tuesday about the program and a bill to expand it statewide. She said it has had nearly 100% participation in the communities where it has launched — including Flint, Pontiac, Kalamazoo, five counties in the eastern Upper Peninsula and Clare County — and research has shown a decrease in evictions, better food security and lessened maternal mental health issues such as postpartum depression.
Volunteer Alissa Maynor, 20, assists a child with a craft project during a "baby parade" event celebrating the May 1 launch of Rx Kids on Friday, May 9, 2025 in Pontiac.
"We call it a prescription for health, hope and opportunity," said Hanna as she testified before the state Senate's Housing and Human Services Committee.
She said although Rx Kids is a pioneer in the U.S. of direct cash assistance to mothers and babies, the program isn't trying to reinvent the wheel but takes after what many other countries already do.
"This is a program that is done around the world. Seventy percent of countries have some sort of child-family allowances, and every peer country in the world has some form of aid parental leave policy," Hanna said.
Rx Kids has no income requirements, and anyone having a baby can enroll as long as they live in a community served by the program and are at least 16 weeks pregnant. Proponents of Rx Kids — which includes the Mackinac Center for Public Policy — say direct cash assistance programs are one of the most efficient ways to help keep people out of poverty, compared to the added expense of creating eligibility requirements for participants and vetting them is expensive.
About 100,000 babies are born in Michigan each year, according to a summary of the bill.
More: Unique cash aid program for new parents is expanding into Wayne County, but not Detroit
"Michigan's future depends on strong, healthy children, and these programs help to remove barriers to mothers that can give their babies the best start in life," said Sen. Sylvia Santana, a Democrat from Detroit who is sponsoring the bill, during Tuesday's hearing.The new bill would put Rx Kids into the state's budget, and the Department of Health and Human Services would contract with Michigan State University to establish the program statewide. Communities would be eligible for the program based on factors such as interest, how disadvantaged the area is, and match funding. The bill allows for the amounts of the direct payments to be adjusted over time for cost of living. It doesn't specify what the amount and exact number of payments would have to be.
Rx Kids was rolled out earlier this year in Pontiac and its newest participant, Clare County in central Michigan, launched on Aug. 1. The program is also slated for expansion into some Wayne County communities, including Dearborn, but is awaiting approval of a contract.
Dr. Mona Hanna, director of Rx Kids, left, speaks with Jashayla Davis of Pontiac, 20, right, and her four-day-old daughter, La'Nay Destiny Davis Williams, during a "baby parade" event celebrating the May 1 launch of Rx Kids on Friday, May 9, 2025 in Pontiac. The newborn and her parents are currently enrolled in Rx Kids. "It feels like God wrote us a check," said Terry Williams of Pontiac, La'Nay's father (not pictured), of the assistance the family has received since the baby's birth.
Hanna compared Rx Kids to the 2021 federal expanded child tax credit as another model of direct assistance. Under the American Rescue Plan Act, it expanded from $2,000 to $3,600 for eligible children under age 6, and $3,000 for other qualifying children under age 18.
Rx Kids is currently administered by the nonprofit GiveDirectly. Under a statewide expansion, the organization would still administer the program, but the funding would flow through MSU as a state institution.
A Senate fiscal analysis estimates the maximum cost to the state could be $750 million, if each of the 100,000 babies born in Michigan annually received the $7,500 maximum in the current program and the state shouldered the entire cost. But committee members said at Tuesday's hearing the program would be unlikely to require that much in state money because of Rx Kids' reliance on private donors as well.
"I just want to point out that based on what some people are proposing right now for an outlay for Michigan's roads at $9 billion, this would be less than 10% of that," said Sen. Jeff Irwin, a Democrat from Ann Arbor who chairs the committee.
"We all know what poverty looks like in our districts, and how many people it's going to serve," he said.
The original hearing agenda and video.
Senate Committee on Housing and Human Services
Tuesday, August 12, 2025 12:00 noon
AGENDA
SB 309 Sen. Santana Human services: services or financial assistance; Rx Kids program; establish.
And any other business properly before the committee.
The House Families and Veterans Committee somehow got presentations for Rx Kids on their agenda back in May, no bills attached.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 12:00 PM
AGENDA
Brian Philson, CEO of Highfields to discuss mission of Highfields: To provide opportunities to children, youth, and families to become more responsible for their own lives and to strengthen their relationships with others
Presentation by Dr. Mona Hanna, Flint Pediatrician and MSU Associate Dean for Public Health on RX Kids – a prenatal and infant support program
OR ANY BUSINESS PROPERLY BEFORE THIS COMMITTEE
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