Pluribus News: Sen. Gounardes' bill would give $1,800 grants to Medicaid recipients who have babies

New York would give Medicaid recipients a one-time $1,800 grant when they have a baby under a first-in-the-nation bill filed Thursday. 

The proposal from Senate Budget and Revenue Committee Chairman Andrew Gounardes (D) comes as more states experiment with no-strings-attached payments and tax credits to fight child poverty, an idea that gained traction during the Covid-19 pandemic but has faced backlash from conservatives. 

“The data show that when a family has a child, their likelihood of going into poverty increases by a third,” Gounardes said in an interview. “The best way to help prevent that is to give families support at the most critical time, which is when they’re having the child.”

The New York Healthy Birth Grant would be distributed during the third trimester of every birth financed by Medicaid. The money would not be counted as income for state and local tax purposes, and the Department of Health would pursue waivers with federal agencies to exempt it from income for federal food and housing benefits.  

New York has one of the highest child poverty rates in the nation. It is obligated to cut that rate by 50% in the next decade under a law Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed in 2021. 

Gounardes said there was no way to meet that goal without expanding the social safety net. The proposed grant would cost an estimated $177 million total, with half of the money coming from the federal government, he said.

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