Flint's neonatal death rate fell by half after Rx Kids launched.
The peer-reviewed cohort study reports an association; it cannot prove the cash programme caused the decline.
After Rx Kids launched in Flint, a peer-reviewed cohort study found the city's neonatal mortality rate fell from 10.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2021–2024 to 5.1 per 1,000 in 2025.
WHAT HAPPENED
Rx Kids began in January 2024 and offers every enrolled pregnant Flint resident $1,500 during pregnancy plus $500 a month through a baby's first year. Researchers compared 2025 birth and death records with Flint's 2021–2024 baseline and with the rest of Michigan. Flint recorded five neonatal deaths among 980 live births in 2025; early neonatal mortality also fell, while the statewide comparison rate was essentially unchanged.
WHY THIS IS HOPESLOP
The programme treats family stability as practical health infrastructure: money for rent, food, transport, diapers and the unpredictable costs of a baby's first year. The study does not settle causation, but the size and timing of the local change make this a serious, hopeful result worth following rather than a slogan.
ORIGINAL SOURCEJAMA PediatricsRead the original report
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