How are Michigan’s families doing? Rising costs and impending costs beg state leaders to respond.

Taniah Ingram is a doula who teaches prenatal classes and hosts a breastfeeding support group in Grand Rapids. She sees firsthand the challenges young families are facing. Parents rarely have paid family leave when a new baby comes along, finding quality child care is extremely difficult, and rushing through the workday routine leaves little room for quality family time.   

“Finding someone who’s safe and reliable to leave your child with, especially here in Kent County, some families start planning as soon as they start trying to conceive,” Ingram says. “The job market’s really challenging, so is finding a job that is flexible enough — especially because most jobs are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and children get done with school around 3 p.m.”

Ingram also sees healthcare access becoming more difficult  for her clients, especially those with Medicaid coverage.

“The new changes from the current administration, like the eligibility requirements where you have to renew so frequently, just add an additional barrier,” she says. “It’s already hard enough to complete all the paperwork and make sure you have all of the things uploaded in this complicated system. Families in general are just navigating a lot.”

Ingram shares the story of a pregnant client who was trying to secure housing. She and her three children were living in a rental home with a leaking roof that led to a toxic mold issue, which the landlord would not remediate.

“It’s hard to focus on getting a doula or going to your prenatal appointments when you don’t have food at home, or when you don’t have stable housing,” she says.

As a parent of a young child, Ingram has faced some of these challenges herself.

“I live with my mom as a means to save money until the economy makes sense to purchase a house,” she says. “Right now things are just astronomical. My Save Plan is no longer in effect for my student loan repayment. My car, car insurance, daycare — the cost of living is insane. Even with me with a degree, most of my work is in nonprofit work. The pay is not sustainable.”

Data confirms families are struggling

Recent data confirms that Ingram’s experience is the norm for today’s families. Forty-nine percent of American families lack the resources to cover essential needs. This according to a 2023 Urban Institute report that also found the cost of essential goods and services is rising faster than earnings and increasing everyday expenses like energy and transportation adding new pressures on households. 

The 2024 State of ALICE in Michigan report shows Michiganders nearly mirror these numbers with 40% of households without enough income to meet basic needs. As 2027 approaches, rising costs, stagnant earnings, and impending Medicaid and SNAP cuts and policy changes increase the threat to Michigan families’ wellbeing.

Since 2024, Michigan families have struggled even more. According to independent think tank Capita’s survey data, from May 2025 to May 2026, 32% of Michigan’s families sometimes or often ran out of food; 23% fell  behind on their rent or mortgage; 10% had to move in with others because of housing costs; and 20% skipped needed medical care because they could not pay for it. 

To make matters worse, the Michigan Smart Trade Alliance (MISTA) tariff ticker shows that Michigan families have spent an additional $6,419 per household in tariff-driven costs since January 2025.

Healthcare: bright spots and barriers

In some ways, Michigan is doing a good job looking out for children. Insights from the 2026 Kids Count in Michigan Data Profiles found a 16.6% increase in numbers of children tested for lead poisoning since 2019. 

“This is tied to efforts like legislation,” says Anne Kuhnen, policy director, Kids Count in Michigan, Michigan League for Public Policy. “We now have universal testing coming into effect, as well as our Filter First legislation, which makes sure that fewer children are being exposed to lead in their water.”

More pregnant mothers are receiving adequate prenatal care and maternal-infant mortality numbers have declined. State policy and budget changes like expanded postpartum care access for Medicaid, investments in programs like CenteringPregnancy, a group prenatal care model, and  Medicaid coverage for doulas. 

“We can see how the state’s prioritizing our health, and particularly prenatal, perinatal, and maternal health, has been linked to these positive trends that we’re seeing in the health domain.”

On the downside, Dr. Heather Bomsta, vice president of policy and programs at Michigan’s Children, notes that healthcare overall has become very expensive. Smaller employers are struggling to provide health insurance while ACA marketplace coverage has become more expensive.

“A  lot of families have had to make very difficult financial decisions about whether or not they can afford coverage. With Medicaid, work requirements are coming in,” Bomsta says. “When parents can’t get healthcare, the family suffers economically and the kids suffer. The state really needs to have a commitment to making sure that healthcare is accessible, be that through the marketplace as well as Medicaid.”

The state has invested dollars for Medicaid navigators to help Michiganders get the coverage they are entitled to. 

“Making sure that people understand what they’re eligible for, making sure they can navigate barriers like work requirements and reporting — that’s going to have to continue as these things are implemented and requirements change,” she says.

Wages lag behind inflation

For Kuhnen, the most troubling 2026 KidsCount data concerned economic security and participation in safety-net programs. Fewer qualifying Michiganders are participating in programs like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Family Independence Program, SNAP, and Medicaid. 

“This started falling even before that federal mega bill passed last summer. The data that we’re looking at doesn’t even factor in potential declines that we might expect from that bill’s passage,” Kuhnen says. “It is really important for the state to start identifying the causes of this program participation decline and start to work to mitigate them.”

Meanwhile, households with children where two parents work full-time for minimum wage have trouble making ends meet but cannot qualify for most safety-net programs.

“It’s not indexed to inflation,” Kuhnen says. “So even a parent who’s working full-time at the minimum wage is already earning too much to qualify for that Family Independence Program. The policy was improved a little bit a couple years ago, but it’s still just not enough for the vast majority of families in need to access it.”

Childcare challenges

Lack of paid parental leave and inability to find affordable childcare further challenges family budgets and parents’ ability to find good employment. Results from  the First Five Years Fund Michigan state polling found that 77% of voters said the cost of child care is a big or small part of the affordability crisis — 40% said their ability to work is affected by coworkers’ child care challenges and 52% of working parents said their ability to work is affected by childcare challenges. 

“Inflation has increased childcare prices. It has raised grocery prices. It has raised the cost of medical care. All the bills are going up for Michigan families, and income is not keeping pace,” Bomsta says. “Michigan families with kids are struggling, especially families with young kids. Young kids are very expensive.”

Bomsta says the state could address these challenges by raising the rates that the Child Development and Care Scholarship pay providers so more providers accept the scholarships.

“This rate that the scholarships are set at by the state does not reflect the true cost of providing that care. Far more families are eligible for that than actually receive it,” Bomsta says. “We would like to see continued investment into childcare. That’s what gets families to work.”

Expansion of the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) into more home-based childcare businesses would also help. GSRP provides free pre-K for Michigan’s four-year-olds. A pilot program is testing this expansion. If more home-based providers can offer GSRP, parents of four-year-olds in their care will save on childcare costs while the providers will earn additional income. 

“Michigan families are stressed, especially families with young children, families with a single head of household, and families where kids have special needs … the stress is coming to a level where families are really struggling,” Bomsta concludes. “We need to make sure that the state is focused on families and investing in programs like Early On, Medicaid, SNAP, and the childcare scholarship that help families bridge that gap from struggling and at risk of losing housing to where they can sustain and keep focused on their kids.”

Photos of Taniah Ingram by Kaitlyn Moorhead.
Photos of kids in childcare by Tommy Allen.
Photo of family by Vicky Yde via Pexels.com.

We hope you enjoyed this first story in the MI Families series. MI Families shares the work of community organizations, healthcare providers, educators, employers, and other Michiganders as they work to create better health, educational access, and economic security for all Michigan families. It is made possible with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.