Flint cash program linked to halved neonatal mortality

What changed in Flint

The Rx Kids program began in January 2024, offering unconditional cash to pregnant Flint residents and parents of infants. Families receive $1,500 once during pregnancy and $500 per month in the baby's first year. Eligibility covers residents at least 16 weeks pregnant or with a newborn up to six months old, and nearly 100 percent of the community participates.

Researchers compared neonatal deaths, meaning deaths in the first four weeks of life, in Flint in 2025 with those from 2021 through 2024. The city's neonatal mortality rate dropped from 10 deaths per 1,000 live births to 5. The early neonatal mortality rate, covering the first week of life, fell from 8 per 1,000 to 2.

Comparison and context

For the rest of Michigan, rates were stable over the study period, according to the findings reported November 2 in JAMA Pediatrics. Flint has a high rate of child poverty and has dealt with public health fallout from lead contamination in its water distribution system.

Science News reports that income tends to drop and expenses rise around a birth, and that economic precarity can expose mothers and babies to health harms such as housing instability, which is associated with preterm birth and low birth weight. Earlier studies linked the program to more prenatal care access, lower preterm and low-weight birth rates and fewer neonatal intensive care admissions.

Rx Kids, backed by public and private funds, has expanded to dozens of communities in Michigan and Ohio.

What is available

The program remains active in Flint and has expanded to other Michigan and Ohio communities. The mortality comparison is an observational finding reported in a peer-reviewed journal, not a randomized trial result, and the report does not establish that the cash payments alone caused the decline.