Ideas worth spreading

TED2018

April 2018

|1.3M views

Why doctors are offering free tax prep in their waiting rooms

Lucy Marcil

More than 90 percent of children in the US see a doctor at least once a year, which means countless hours spent in waiting rooms for parents. What if those hours could be used for something productive -- like saving money? Through her organization StreetCred, pediatrician and TED Fellow Lucy Marcil is offering free tax prep to parents right in the waiting room, reimagining what a doctor's visit can look like and helping to lift families out of poverty. Learn more about how free tax prep and guidance could be the best poverty prescription we have in the US.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Donate to StreetCred to empower low-income families.

More than 90 percent of children in the US see a doctor at least once a year, which means countless hours spent in waiting rooms for parents. What if those hours could be used for something productive -- like saving money? Through her organization StreetCred, pediatrician and TED Fellow Lucy Marcil is offering free tax prep to parents right in the waiting room, reimagining what a doctor's visit can look like and helping to lift families out of poverty. Learn more about how free tax prep and guidance could be the best poverty prescription we have in the US.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Donate to StreetCred to empower low-income families.

About the speaker

Pediatrician, social entrepreneur

See speaker profile

Lucy Marcil is providing fiscal services to low-income families in the doctor’s waiting room.

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Duncan Lindsey | Oxford University Press, 2008 | Book

Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America's Children

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Gary Evans, Rochelle Cassells | Clinical Psychological Science, 2013 | Article

"Childhood Poverty, Cumulative Risk Exposure, and Mental Health in Emerging Adults"

Evans and Cassells are developmental psychologists who followed young children living in poverty for decades to quantify the impact of finance on their physical and mental health. The results were stark: different brain structure and function, difficulty with emotional regulation, and learned helplessness. Although cautioning that none of these changes are immutable and that poverty is not a sentence to poor life outcomes, they make a compelling case for the urgent need to address poverty as a health issue. Read more coverage of their work here and here.