Just one-in-four employers cowl in vitro fertilization in medical insurance, in accordance with KFF’s annual survey. The prices of IVF have change into a sizzling matter within the presidential race.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Fertility remedies are so costly that most individuals can solely afford it with insurance coverage protection. It is change into a giant election subject. A brand new report seems to be at how usually American employees have entry to that protection. NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin experiences.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: One spherical of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, can value you $20,000. The method entails retrieving eggs from ovaries, fertilizing these eggs in a lab after which transferring an embryo into the uterus. It could take a number of rounds to get pregnant and have a child. A brand new survey from KFF, the nonprofit analysis group, finds that solely about 1 in 4 corporations have well being plans that cowl IVF. It is just a little higher for giant corporations. Simply over half of them provide IVF protection. On the marketing campaign path, like at this rally in Michigan in August, former President Donald Trump has made this promise.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: That below the Trump administration, your authorities pays for – or your insurance coverage firm can be mandated to pay for – all prices related to IVF remedy – fertilization for ladies.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Trump’s promise got here after IVF was shut down briefly in Alabama. The Cato Institute, a libertarian suppose tank, estimated that if the federal authorities picked up the tab for everybody’s IVF, it must pay $7 billion annually. A brand new federal mandate for insurers to pay would doubtless face authorized challenges, because the mandate to cowl contraception did. In the meantime, congressional Democrats have been pushing for the Proper to IVF Act, saying they’re the social gathering that champions this care. It has been blocked by Republicans twice. Matthew Rae, who ran the survey for KFF, says regardless that the U.S. is a good distance off from IVF for all, employers do appear to be including the profit.
MATTHEW RAE: Generally this stuff go in waves, and there is curiosity in a problem for a time period. And at different occasions, it is a extended subject. I imply, it is arduous to know.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: So the way forward for IVF protection might rely upon the end result of the election, the labor market, reproductive rights courtroom circumstances and extra.
Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR Information, Washington.
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