Fertility is affecting thousands of individuals every day and with the rise in costs, it's becoming harder and harder for them to afford it. The average cost of a full IVF cycle is over $24,000 plus the cost of medicine. Unfortunately, most individuals suffering with infertility do not have insurance coverage for it. That means the average household of $51,000 has to fork over almost half of their annual salary to attempt to have a child. Others have to take out loans, drain their savings account, borrow money from friends and family, get a second job, and/or scale back on housing/items they have. For me personally, this is a frustrating thing to swallow because it is not a choice for me to battle with infertility, why is it a choice for insurance to offer assistance/coverage for it? It's not my fault I fell and broke my arm, but you want to cover that 100%....
Some states are mandated to provide infertility coverage. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, "15 states - Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia - have passed laws that require insurers to either cover or offer coverage for infertility diagnosis and treatment. Of those states, thirteen have laws that require insurance companies to cover infertility treatment and two states - California and Texas - have laws that require insurance companies to offer coverage for infertility treatment." Click here to read more about each states requirements.
There are a number of companies out there that have recognized the benefit in offering some type of coverage. Employees were surveyed (according to Fertility IQ) and said they felt more loyal, more likely to stay, and more grateful to their companies who offered 100% coverage. Here are a few companies that offer great maternity/infertility coverage benefits:
Starbucks offers $20,000 IVF benefit to all employees — even their part-time baristas. Plus, employees who want to adopt can receive up to $10,000.
According to Working Mother, Morgan Stanley employees get receive 16 weeks of paid leave if taken immediately, or eight weeks following a birth, adoption or foster-care placement — with another eight weeks available to take within 12 months.
New York Time reports that MassMutual pays for genetic screening of embryos. They also have 18 weeks of fully paid leave to new mothers — with non-birth mothers, fathers and adoptive parents eligible to take up to eight weeks of fully paid parental leave.
Chanel, Spotify, The Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company (Boston), Bank of America all have an Unlimited coverage amount. This means no matter how many times you have to go through the process, you will be covered. How awesome!
Pinterest, Facebook, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation offer $100,000 in coverage which includes four IVF cycles and pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) - which could run you at least $250 an embryo plus lab and processing fees. (To put it in perspective, to test our 4 embryos, it cost $1,750. If we have to do another egg retrieval, and decide to do testing again, we would have to pay that one more time - or more if we had more embryos. There were package deals but we elected to just pay the single time fee.)
LinkedIn, Salesforce and Google all offer $75,000 in coverage which includes three IVF cycles and pre-implantation genetic screening.
If you work for a company that covers infertility, feel blessed. We were fortunate enough that my husband's company uses Illinois insurance for their employees, granting us coverage. We still have to pay out of pocket for some things but so far, it has saved us thousands of dollars. For those that aren't as lucky, take a look into some of the companies listed above and see if they have any job openings or talk to your current employer on adding that option to your coverage.
Having a family is already a financial investment, creating it shouldn't be. I admire those who have saved and done all of this out of pocket. I will admit that was the biggest thing holding us back prior to my husband getting his current job. We were not ready to clean out our savings just yet.
If you have any tips for others on how to save or where to work to help pay for their treatments, leave a comment below.
Commentaires