Michigan’s Rx Kids program prescribes cash in pregnancy and early life, presenters tell Oregon committee

At a Feb. 25 meeting of the Oregon Senate Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician in Flint, Michigan and director of Rx Kids, and Dr. Luke Schafer, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan and co‑director of Rx Kids, described a cash‑prescription program that delivers direct cash payments in pregnancy and the infant period to reduce poverty’s harms.

The program in Flint, the speakers said, provides $1,500 mid‑pregnancy and then monthly payments after birth; together the presenters described a $7,500 total support package targeted at moms and infants. "As a pediatrician ... it is so frustrating to have my hands tied and not to be able to prescribe something to treat a root cause of what makes our children, our families, and our communities sick, and that's poverty," Dr. Hanna‑Attisha said.

The senators opened the informational to learn how Rx Kids works and whether Oregon could adopt similar…