Infertility is a huge problem that many women in American society face, and it can be a difficult thing to deal with, especially for couples who desperately want children of their own. Finding a way around the infertility that they have can be an extremely difficult and expensive process, and many couples go through years of intensive treatments, implantations, and drugs to try to get their bodies to jive with fostering life. In many cases, the cost is simply too much, and in others it never works at all.
For those in the former category, New York is making it easier for them to reach their goals. According to the New York state legislature, having children is a “fundamental aspect of being a human”, essentially a human right. For many years, infertility treatment has been considered an elective procedure, and most health insurance companies did not cover it. With the passing of this bill, though, it will become clear that, while infertility treatment is not medially necessary for health, it is for many people’s lives.
The law will make it easier for health insurance companies to provide coverage for this type of treatment, having them insure women between the ages of twenty five and forty four for infertility treatment, with a $60,000 lifetime cap. For people who have put their entire savings into trying to conceive a child, this is welcome news. It also requires that prescription drug coverage include fertility drugs, although these will not be taken out of the sixty thousand dollar lifetime maximum.
Like any type of health insurance coverage, women with this plan will also have to make co pays and pay deductibles. The plan will cover the following methods of fertility treatment:
- in vitro fertilization
- intracytoplasmic sperm injection
- assisted hatching
- gamete donation
- embryo donation
- embryo transfer
- gamete intrafallopian tube transfer
- zygote intrafallopian tube transfer
Those are the most expensive types, although they are not the only ones covered. You are only allowed to get this type of treatment if other, less expensive types of treatment have not been successful in bringing about a pregnancy sustained to the point of childbirth.
In order to get this coverage, you must have had a health insurance plan with the company for at least a year, and there must be reasonable belief that the fertility treatment undergone will bring about the birth of a healthy baby. The treatment must be undergone in a facility that is up to the standards set by the medical community. It is even possible to continue getting treatments once one has resulted in the birth of a healthy child. If an embryo transfer works, then you are insured for two more.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.