A Good Idea
But it won’t be imitated in the US.
The CBC notes that $81 a month buys a healthier baby:
When pregnant women were trusted with $81 a month in prenatal benefits, no strings attached, their babies’ physical health did better, say Manitoba researchers, who would like similar income supplements to be offered across Canada.
The Healthy Baby Prenatal Benefit offers support to families with a net household income of less than $32,000, on a sliding scale.
They give the money to the expectant mothers and let them decide how to use it. In the US there are programs for low income women, like WIC [Women, Infants, and Children] but they are very specific as to what the benefits can buy, and none of them include soap or diapers. Canada has single payer health care, so the women have access to prenatal care, but the US would rather pay $100K/day for neonatal hospitalization than about $500 for the standard series of prenatal medical visits.
2 comments
According to the Washington post (via Digby) we have a solution to the toddler health problem. To date, this year, 23 toddlers have shot themselves or their peers. We can do better: Outlaw gun locks and gun lockers. This is even cheaper than abortion! A two-fer!
Lest anyone think this is a piece of slip-lip, it’s not! It is deep sarcasm. A society that cares so little for it’s families has no reason to exist.
It is amazing that the same people who demand that every pregnancy go to term refuse to pay the cost of the child, including child care, so the mother can work. When whackoes decided that other people’s sex was evil and must be punished society suffered.