Media Meet | Rx Kids "Cash for Mom and Babies" Goes U.P. Wide
Rx Kids provides monthly cash payments during pregnancy and a baby's first year of life. The program launched in Flint in 2024 and expanded to five eastern U.P. counties before going UP-wide this spring. Around 500 families have already enrolled since the eastern U.P. launch.
"We kept hearing from mamas and families and doctors from the rest of the UP: when are you coming? We need this," said Dr. Mona Hanna, the program's founder and a pediatrician at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine.
Superior Health Foundation serves as the regional fiduciary for Rx Kids across the Upper Peninsula, working to secure private matching funds alongside state dollars.
"We are working to get the private match for those public dollars so that we can ensure that the program is able to be administered in a way that doesn't send moms off a benefits cliff," said SHF CEO Megan Murphy.
The program requires no means testing. Any UP resident who is pregnant or has a newborn qualifies. Nick DeRusha, director and health officer for the LMAS District Health Department, says that simplicity has driven strong participation. "It allows people to take time off work to spend with the baby, attend their prenatal appointments. It's a really big financial boost for people at that time in their life when they really need it."