To pay or not to pay

Abstract

Over the past two decades, IVF has helped hundreds of thousands of infertile couples around the world become parents. Despite its growing success and widespread use in the United States to treat infertility, IVF remains primarily a privately funded treatment. Most health plans exclude it from coverage on the grounds that it is not medically necessary. In contrast, other developed countries (such as Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden) have made provisions in their national health policies to cover infertility treatment, including IVF (1). In the United States in 2001, the median cost per IVF cycle was estimated to be $9,226 (2). Because of this high out-of-pocket cost, many financially constrained infertile couples are excluded from access to this care.