Wayne County approves Rx Kids cash-allowance agreement with Michigan State University to pilot in six communities
Loading...
Summary
The Wayne County Health and Human Services Committee approved an agreement with Michigan State University and partners to launch Rx Kids, a place-based cash-allowance program that provides $1,500 prenatal and $500 per month for six months (up to $4,500 per child) in six high-need Wayne County communities; the vote passed with one recorded oppose.
Wayne County commissioners voted to approve an agreement with Michigan State University and implementation partners to bring the Rx Kids maternal-and-infant cash-allowance program to six Wayne County communities.
Keneal Johnson, interim director of the Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services, said the county would contract with Michigan State University and local partners to launch Rx Kids in River Rouge, Inkster, Highland Park, Hamtramck, Melvindale and Dearborn. Johnson said eligible expectant mothers who live in a designated Rx Kids community and are at least 16 weeks pregnant will receive a one-time prenatal cash benefit of $1,500 upon verification, followed by $500 per month for the baby’s first six months, for a total benefit of $4,500 per child.
Dr. Mona Hanna, associate dean for public health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and director of the MSU Pediatric Public Health Initiative, described Rx Kids as an evidence-informed, place-based intervention. She said previous Rx Kids sites showed improvements in prenatal-care uptake, reductions in smoking in the third trimester, and population-level reductions in low birthweight and preterm delivery. The program’s administration partner for cash transfers is the nonprofit GiveDirectly, which the presenters described as a specialist in direct cash programming.
Johnson and presenters described the funding mix in committee discussion: county program dollars were described as post-ARPA general-fund funds; presenters said Wayne County’s proposed contribution is $7,000,000 toward the local rollout. Committee members were also told that the state budget included a $250,000,000 general-fund allocation for Rx Kids statewide and that the county contribution would draw down some previously allocated state TANF/general-fund dollars in support of local implementation.
Committee members asked several detailed questions about eligibility, take-up, fraud safeguards, administrative costs, fairness across communities and evaluation. Presenters said Rx Kids is place-based (eligibility is by residence in designated communities), that enrollment is primarily prenatal (more than 90 percent of participants in other sites enroll during pregnancy), and that administrative costs are capped in program design at about 15 percent of total program spending. Presenters also said evaluative measures include routinely updated public dashboards and controlled research comparisons across sites to measure outcomes such as prenatal-care utilization and birth outcomes.
Commissioner Anderson moved approval; Commissioner Killeen supported. The motion carried with one recorded oppose (Commissioner Marecki). The committee directed the department to include Rx Kids data in its regular quarterly Well-Being updates and to monitor distribution across the six designated communities.
The agreement authorizes county partnership with Michigan State University and named implementation partners to administer Rx Kids in the specified communities, to use a combination of county post-ARPA general-fund dollars, state allocations and philanthropic or other third-party funds, and to report program metrics to the county on a regular basis.
