SOCIAL PROGRAMS : Nutrition Plan Brings Big Savings, Study Finds

Even as the White House is criticizing so-called “big government” programs of the 1960s for failing to solve festering social problems, the General Accounting Office is boasting about one such program that works.

A new study by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, gives high marks to the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children--better known as WIC.

Funded through the Department of Agriculture, WIC provides supplementary food, nutrition education and medical referrals to poor pregnant women, mothers and children up to age 5.

The GAO found WIC extraordinarily cost-effective, generating major savings in public and private health care costs.

One key finding, for example, estimated that WIC prenatal benefits resulted in a 25% reduction in low birth weights--the major cause of infant mortality and climbing medical costs associated with chronically ill children.

According to the report, that meant a savings in 1990 alone of $337 million to the federal government in reduced payments for Medicaid and other assistance programs.

It also estimated a more dramatic savings in the same year of $423 million for private insurers, hospitals and local governments in lower health care costs.

BACKGROUND: The WIC program was authorized by the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to improve the health of low-income pregnant women with inadequate diets, a factor that put them at higher risk of miscarriage and other health problems.

WIC foods are delivered through a system of coupons for purchasing specific foods, such as infant formula, milk, eggs, cheese, peanut butter and cereal.

Tracey Hill of Lansing, Mich., used WIC coupons to get through her first pregnancy five years ago. Since WIC coupons didn’t cover “junk foods,” she didn’t buy them. “It made me eat better and I learned a lot about nutrition,” Hill said. “And my daughter won’t eat junk food to this day. She can’t miss what she never had. If she wants a snack, she asks for an apple.”

However, WIC has its critics. Welfare reform advocates say it fails to encourage self-reliance.

ISSUES: Given the GAO findings, supporters are seeking more money for WIC and a change in the funding formula.

Now, pregnant women with family incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level are eligible, regardless of nutritional risk.

But the GAO said funding formulas prevented 12 states and Puerto Rico (together serving 40% of all prenatal WIC participants) from enrolling eligible women. The formula by which the federal government doles out money to the states is incorrectly based on past participation rates, rather than the number of eligible women and children, the agency said.

Overall, participation has increased from 200,000 in 1974 to 5 million in 1991, and nearly $2.8 billion has been proposed by President Bush for fiscal year 1993--up from $2.1 billion in 1990.

The GAO said funding for WIC should be even higher because of its long-term cost savings, even if those funds must come from other programs’ budgets.

But Nancy Pindus, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington, warned against expecting WIC to solve more broad-based problems affecting the poor. “It works because it’s specific in its goals,” she said. “It’s . . . not a panacea.”