Nyah Phillips of Inkster explains how a cash prescription program for parents helped her growing family—and why she’s fighting alongside other Michigan moms to expand it statewide.
While watching her two-month-old son fall asleep in a baby swing inside their home in Inkster, less than 20 miles west of Detroit, Nyah Phillips let out a small sigh of relief.
“When I first found out that I was pregnant, it kind of felt like everything had hit the fan at the same time,” she said. Her pregnancy symptoms were severe, and after being unexpectedly laid off from her job in Lansing, Phillips said she was struggling.
“I had this idea that when women get pregnant, it’s towards the end of the pregnancy that they can’t work. I never expected I couldn’t work the first half,” she said, remembering how frustrated and defeated she felt watching her family members help her pack up her apartment to move closer to them in Inkster.
“I had the degree, I had gotten the good job, I got my car, I was making good financial decisions—and then life happened. I prepared as much as I could, and I still needed help,” she said.
While attending a community baby shower, Phillips learned that Rx Kids, a “cash prescription” program for pregnant people and newborns, had launched in Wayne County and had recently expanded access to families in nearby communities like Inkster.
“When I originally found out about Rx Kids, I was looking for resources because my biggest priority was making sure that I’m not suffering or my child’s not suffering just because things weren’t put together perfectly,” Phillips said.
Having a baby is expensive. In the US, the first year of a baby’s life is estimated to cost families nearly $20,000, between diapers, formula, medical care, transportation, and childcare—and that’s not including the actual cost of giving birth.
“I thought help was just extra, but help is essential,” said Phillips.
Since launching in Flint in January 2024, Rx Kids has prescribed nearly $32.5 million in direct cash support to over 9,000 families in more than 40 communities across Michigan. The support helps families afford essentials like baby supplies, food, housing, childcare, and transportation to doctors’ appointments—and data shows that giving families this cash leads to healthier pregnancies, lower postpartum depression rates, financial stability, and strengthening the local economy.
Related: A cash-assistance program in Flint is giving new moms some breathing room
“I think Rx Kids is having the positive impact that it is having because they took the time to figure out what the people they’re serving need,” Phillips said. “It’s a dignified way that they’re supporting you.”
She added that she’s appreciative that the program allows recipients to use the cash prescriptions where they see fit. For Phillips, that meant catching up on debt, enrolling her and her partner in childbirth and newborn classes, and, like most Rx Kids moms, buying baby supplies.
Several Michigan legislators, from Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have been impressed by the program’s results and have supported expanding it to communities across the state. In October 2025, with final approval from Whitmer, the state Legislature approved $18.5 million from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to be allocated to Rx Kids in the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget.
But then, just weeks before Christmas, that funding promise came to a screeching halt when the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee voted to roll back $645 million in vital services for Michiganders—including money promised to Rx Kids.
Michigan House Majority Speaker Matt Hall (R-Kalamazoo) has since openly said that Rx Kids will not receive any additional funding in the state budget, calling the data-backed program “a scam.”
Michiganders like Phillips have expressed frustration regarding these budget cuts and comments towards Rx Kids.
“If you’re somebody who’s in policy, and you’re making policies that affect real people, shouldn’t you try to understand other people? And, if you don’t, why are you still in your job? I don’t understand how somebody could call something like Rx Kids, something that is helping support parents in a way that parents can actually find useful, a scam,” said Phillips.
Phillips has since turned her outrage into action. Alongside grassroots reproductive justice organizations like Mothering Justice Action Fund and other maternal health care advocates, Phillips has been sharing her pregnancy story and advocating for proactive state policies centered on maternal and infant health, like expanding childcare access and requiring employers to provide paid paternal leave, in addition to pushing for a statewide expansion of Rx Kids.
“It’s important to have approaches that really support the whole household,” said Phillips.
Advocates say they hope that as more Michigan parents come together and share their stories, lawmakers will increasingly support legislation to expand data-backed programs like Rx Kids that help families thrive and, in turn, build better communities.
In spring 2025, Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit) sponsored a proposal to increase access to Rx Kids across the state, but it remains stuck in committee.
“Raising a child should be one of the most joyful times in a family’s life, but instead, the reality for far too many families is that parenthood has become a time of great financial hardship,” Santana said.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is currently campaigning for governor, has said that Rx Kids is a “program that works” and that she’d fight to expand it statewide if elected to the state’s highest office later this year.
“As someone who’s overseen one of our state’s largest agencies and actually reduced waste, fraud, and abuse in our department, I know what it is and what it isn’t. In every community where Rx Kids has been implemented, this small, tiny investment has yielded significant growth, protections, and dividends for the health of our kids, the health of our families, and the health of the future of Michigan,” she told The ‘Gander.
“It’s a program that works and that builds community and, ultimately, leads to a stronger economy as a result.“
