About Rx Kids
More potent than any prescribed pill, Rx Kids aims to improve health, hope, and opportunity. Science demonstrates the lifelong consequences of early adversity but also the promise of science-based, community-driven solutions. For many families, income plunges and poverty spikes right before a child is born and remains high throughout the first year. Built on the tremendous success of the expanded Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty to its lowest level in recorded history, and in line with global evidence, Rx Kids boldly reimagines how we care for each other by walking alongside families during the challenging time of pregnancy and infancy.
The science is clear.
Evidence shows that no-strings-attached cash has immediate and long-term positive impacts. Rx Kids will build on this by looking at how cash prescriptions:
- Improve maternal and infant health in the areas of mortality/morbidity, postpartum depression, and breastfeeding.
- Could help in bettering early childhood health through things like lead screening, immunization, early literacy, and stress reduction.
- Improve adult health through physical and mental health, happiness/hope/dignity – as well as reductions in parental stress, partner violence, and may even reduce substance abuse.
- Could improve greater access to health processes like baby well checks, maternal-infant support programs, enrichment activities – and decreasing involvement of child protective services.
- Help families meet their basic needs like food security and housing stability can buffer families against the highest-in-the-life course increase in poverty that accompanies childbirth.
What does the research on cash say?
- Hundreds of studies show that unconditional cash transfers can be life-changing across countries and contexts. Mothers and babies are no different, and early intervention is shown to have sustained health and development impacts years after cash is delivered.
- Healthier pregnancies: Multiple studies have found positive impacts of cash on birth weight, premature births, and breastfeeding, parental mental health, and food security.
- Improved early development: New research shows that $333 monthly cash transfers to low-income families boosted infants’ early cognitive development.
- Impact lasts into adulthood: Years after their moms received cash transfers, adult children experienced benefits across health, education, and nutrition, lifetime earnings, and reduced anxiety and depression.
- The 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit lifted millions of families out of poverty and drove child poverty to a record low of 5.2 percent.
- Evidence shows numerous additional benefits to no-strings-attached cash, including reduced food insecurity and financial hardship, improved health for children and parents, better school performance, and reduced incidence of child abuse. Benefits extend into adulthood and far exceed the cost of the expanded tax credit.
Rx Kids is already having an impact.
Early findings reveal positive outcomes for Rx Kids enrolled families. Based on participant surveys and rigorous research data, Flint moms and babies are faring better in 2024 than in previous years or in nearby geographies.
In a research survey with over 1,000 responses, researchers were able to compare Rx Kids moms to moms in nearby geographies and Flint moms in previous years.
Researchers found that:
Rx Kids moms have better maternal wellbeing. Rx Kids moms are:
- Less likely to exhibit symptoms of post-partum depression and anxiety
- More likely to rank their general mental health as “excellent or very good”
- More likely to report they feel loved, hopeful, valued, empowered, and respected
Rx Kids families more likely to be financially stable. Rx Kids moms are:
- Less likely to be evicted
- More likely have “enough of the kinds of foods we want”
- More likely to be caught up on rent
- More likely to say that they have “freedom and choice to decide how household money is spent”
A survey of over 530 Rx Kids moms, conducted by program administrator GiveDirectly, found that:
- 88% of participants say that Rx Kids has helped them make ends meet and feel more secure in their finances
- 66% say that Rx Kids has made it easier to get the healthcare that their household needs
- 84% say that the money from Rx Kids has helped them become more confident as parents
- 67% feel that Rx Kids has helped to improve their health and that of their infants
Moms also had the opportunity to share how Rx Kids is impacting them and their babies.
Learn more about the science of prenatal and child cash transfers.