A bipartisan roundtable discussing how to make diapers more accessible for families was held in Frankfort Wednesday.
Parents advocates and nonprofits discussed how barriers to diaper access negatively impact health and childcare, and ways to make diapers more affordable.
Democratic State Senator Cassie Chambers Armstrong was one of the organizers. She says there are currently no programs that provide assistance for diapers in Kentucky.
“Parents of young kids can't buy them with Medicaid or with WIC or with SNAP,” Armstrong said. “So really, families just have to shoulder this really expensive cost that can be thousands of dollars a year if you have two kids in diapers, like I did, with no assistance.”
Armstrong says it’s not just a family issue, but an economic issue in rural states like Kentucky.
“Kentucky is a state that has extremely high poverty rates, and especially really high rates of child poverty,” she said. “And so we know families in Kentucky are struggling even more than your average family across America, not being able to afford all of the things that they need for their children, and they’re getting hit higher by rising costs.”
The Senator says some ideas discussed included eliminating the sales tax on diapers, expanding diaper banks and creating a state trust fund.
Republican Representative and fellow roundtable organizer Vanessa Grossl introduced a bill that would eliminate that sales tax last legislative session, but it died in committee.
