LANSING, Mich., Aug. 7 (Our Michigan Times) — Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall is calling for answers about Rx Kids, a cash-assistance program that gives money to pregnant women and new parents. Hall says lawmakers approved a taxpayer-funded maternal health program but are now overseeing a broader cash-payment system with few restrictions.
Dr. Mona Hanna, the program’s founder, has told the Michigan House Oversight Committee that Rx Kids uses different funding sources for different groups of recipients. She said philanthropic money supports undocumented recipients, while public funds may support recipients who qualify for Medicaid or other state programs.
How Rx Kids works
Rx Kids began in Flint in 2024 and has since expanded to nearly 50 Michigan communities, according to program reports. It provides a $1,500 payment during pregnancy and $500 monthly payments after a child is born. The number of monthly payments can vary by location, with some descriptions ranging from six months to as long as 12 months.
The program does not require recipients to spend the money on a specific product or service. Hanna testified that parents may use the money as they choose. Program officials ask participants through surveys or self-assessments how the money is spent, but they do not directly monitor each purchase.
As of June 2, Rx Kids had provided more than 11,700 new and expecting parents with nearly $42 million, according to figures presented in coverage of the program.
Why the funding is disputed
Michigan lawmakers approved a $300 million allocation for Rx Kids in 2024, with the money expected to be spent over three years. The total has been described differently in public accounts, including figures above $300 million. The available information does not establish whether those figures refer to the same appropriations or include different categories of funding.
Hanna testified that Rx Kids had raised about $86 million from nongovernmental sources. She said Medicaid-eligible recipients may be supported by state and federal Medicaid funds. Legally present recipients who are not enrolled in Medicaid may receive money from the Healthy Michigan program and private sources, she said. Undocumented recipients, she said, are supported by philanthropic funds.
“Only philanthropic funding, not any taxpayer dollars from any level of government is supporting undocumented immigrants,” Hanna said during the committee hearing, according to an account of her testimony. She also said that applicants must submit identification documents, but that the documents do not establish legal status.
What Hall is asking
Hall, a Republican from Richland Township, has questioned the program’s eligibility rules, its funding streams and its unrestricted payments. He said lawmakers understood they were approving a maternal and prenatal health initiative, not a broader guaranteed-income program.
“Rx Kids, by design, is given to anyone that has a child,” Hall said in an interview. He also said the program does not check citizenship and that payments have gone to people who were not legally present in the United States.
Hall’s office provided video of legislative committee testimony that it says includes program officials acknowledging payments to people who were not legally present. The available information does not include the full video, a transcript, payment records or the names of those officials.
That leaves a central dispute unresolved: Hall describes the program as using taxpayer money for recipients regardless of legal status, while Hanna says public funds are separated from philanthropic funds and are not used for undocumented recipients. No payment-level audit or complete committee transcript has been identified in the available records to independently reconcile those claims.
What remains unclear
The available material does not include the appropriation bill, its budget language or a legislative roll-call vote. It also does not establish whether the program has formal ties to voter registration, an issue raised in some accounts about the legislative scrutiny.
The Michigan House Oversight Committee’s questions focus on how Rx Kids is funded, who qualifies and how the payments are administered. The answers could affect how lawmakers view future funding for a program that began as a Flint maternal and infant health effort and has expanded across Michigan.
