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Melissa Schober
@melissaschober.bsky.social
Health policy, Baltimore, *personal views*
140 followers70 following918 posts
MSmelissaschober.bsky.social

Looks forlornly at Baltimore's defunct baby bond.

Ddtwyman.bsky.social

Harris has proposed giving $6,000 (via refundable tax credit) to families in the 1st year of a baby's life. Flint, Michigan has been doing this for the past year. The results are incredible: Fewer babies born with low birthweight No families evicted in baby’s 1st year Less hunger t.co/BiEcGw7Mj7

The woman behind Flint’s Rx Kids program, Dr Mona Hanna (known to locals as just "Dr. Mona") is the relentlessly upbeat, baby-obsessed public health advocate and Michigan State University professor whose research exposed the Flint water crisis. She's also a practicing pediatrician. Over the years, she's grown frustrated by how little she can improve the health of her tiniest patients, who often cope with inadequate nutrition, unstable housing and stressed parents. "I know how to take care of kids, I know what kids need, but I don't know how to get the them cash to do it," she said. "For so long I just wanted to have something in my doctor's bag to prescribe away poverty." She found a way to do it. Rx Kids is so named because it "prescribes" cash for pregnant moms and babies. Since January, city residents have been eligible for $1,500 at 20 weeks' gestation and then another $500 for each of the 12 months after birth (so $6,000 total for a baby's first year). There are no income tests, making the program cheaper to administer and perhaps less stigmatized.
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Melissa Schober
@melissaschober.bsky.social
Health policy, Baltimore, *personal views*
140 followers70 following918 posts
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