How did the high cost of in vitro fertilization treatment become a top election issue?

On November 1, 2024By Karl

Having children is not cheap. It was not possible for Bree Sison and her husband to do such a thing.

Sison and her husband, Sam Stuart, started trying in 2016 after Sison’s father was diagnosed with colon cancer. It took three years, one surgery, multiple attempts at intrauterine insemination and another round of surgery. in vitro fertilizationbut it worked. They had a daughter in 2019.

But fertility treatments that don’t cover $40,000 in insurance (along with other expenses like student loans, day care, and a mortgage) have strained the family’s budget so financially that there’s little left for college or retirement.

Already traveling much of the year as a member of the Army National Guard, Stuart is now away from home for months at a time as a defense contractor.

“It feels like I’m a single mom most of the year,” said Sison, 40, of Richmond, Virginia. “And that is a direct result of debt.”

This election cycle, the desperate search for financial relief for families reeling from the high costs of infertility treatments is on the ballot. fifteen states According to infertility advocacy group Resolve, we offer a form of IVF insurance coverage law. Many without insurance are forced to take out personal loans or second mortgages to afford infertility treatment, which can cost more than $10,000 per cycle.

About 1 in 8 women of reproductive age Most women said they or their partners needed fertility assistance services at some point, according to a 2024 survey by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research and news organization.

14 percent of these women reported receiving in vitro fertilization, a type of assisted reproductive technology in which eggs are combined with sperm in a laboratory to create embryos.

Courtney Deady and her husband have been trying to have a baby for about 10 years. When filling out the ballot, Deady says he examines candidates’ records to see where they stand on insurance mandates or tax incentives.

Deady, 34, community support director for Building Military Families Network, a nonprofit organization that supports military and veteran families, is heading to Washington to lobby Congress for affordable access to reproductive care. Financial pressures are especially acute for military families whose benefits often don’t cover fertility treatments, he said.

“This has nothing to do with red or blue,” he said. “Infertility is a disease like cancer.”

Every hope and heartbreak dealt a heavy blow to this National Guard family from Ohio. The high out-of-pocket costs of $100,000 so far have also disrupted their efforts to have children.

Test, medication and transfer costs increase every year. Like her husband, Deady works many jobs, but this is still not enough.

They have one embryo left, but even if they were ready, they can’t move forward right now. They cannot afford to take out another personal loan due to high interest rates.

“We’re still hopeful that this will continue, but we need to be able to afford it and we can’t do that right now,” Deady said.

Where do Harris and Trump stand on IVF?

Voters are looking to former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for solutions. almost 6 out of 10 They want to hear candidates talk about in vitro fertilization, according to the KFF survey.

“We have never seen fertility services become such an openly discussed campaign issue by candidates,” said Usha Ranji, deputy director of Women’s Health Policy at KFF.

Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said she would support “universal access” to in vitro fertilization treatment.

On the campaign trail, Trump also promised to cover the costs involved. Trump’s campaign did not share cost estimates.

“Under the Trump administration, your government will pay — or your insurance company will be obligated to pay — all costs associated with in vitro fertilization,” Trump said at a campaign event in Michigan in August. very good.”

Vice President Kamala Harris featured vocally support for IVF but it did not put forward plans to expand fertility coverage.

Afterwards Alabama Supreme Court decision Harris, who said in February that frozen embryos created during IVF were children, placed the blame for the fertility treatment crisis on Trump, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. He said it was a direct result of him overturning the Wade case.

“There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris,” Harris campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika told USA TODAY.

Who will pay for In Vitro Fertilization coverage?

No matter who wins the presidential election, in vitro fertilization coverage faces an uncertain future.

A national mandate for in vitro fertilization insurance coverage would likely require congressional approval. If Republicans win the House or Senate, it would be a tough sell, according to Resolve CEO Barbara Collura.

“There is potential for positive action for both (presidential) candidates,” he said. “But if one of the chambers is Republican, we’re probably going to have a harder time.”

Figuring out who will pay the IVF bill can be a major sticking point.

IVF hasn’t yet broken the bank in states with mandatory insurance coverage, Collura said. HE pointed out the data Reports from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, which have mandated infertility benefits for more than three decades, show that infertility benefits account for less than 1% of total premium costs.

Vanessa Brown Calder, director of opportunity and family policy studies at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, estimates that mandatory in vitro fertilization will cost the government Approximately 7 billion dollars annually. It estimates that if expanding insurance coverage leads to an increase in demand for in vitro fertilization, annual costs could rise to $43 billion.

Alabama puts IVF in election spotlight

After the Alabama Supreme Court decision, in vitro fertilization was brought into the national debate.

During surveys show overwhelming majority While 50 percent of Americans support in vitro fertilization, some oppose it on the grounds that the process could mean destroying unusable embryos.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who sponsored the “Right to IVF Act.” Democrats like Argue that treatment is an important part of reproductive health care. For many in the GOP, supporting IVF is “a tougher sell,” said Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer for the research and advocacy group American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Twice this year, members of Congress tried unsuccessfully to pass bills that would protect access to in vitro fertilization. The bills were blocked by Senate Republicans.

“One thing we’re very happy to hear is Donald Trump’s statements supporting IVF and supporting insurance coverage for IVF,” Tipton said. “On the other hand, they lack specificity, to put it generously. So I think it’s hard to know.”

When Chicago-area Republican strategist Collin Corbett, 38, and his wife, Abbey, welcomed their first son in March after more than three years of in vitro fertilization, his phone was buzzing with notifications claiming that the GOP and the presidential candidate did not support the procedure.

Corbett said he knows that’s not true from his daily conversations with hundreds of conservatives across the country.

A nationwide survey conducted last year by former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway’s consulting firm on in vitro fertilization and fertility treatments backs up that claim. He found strong support from conservative circles, including 78 percent of self-identified abortion opponents and 83 percent of evangelicals.

“IVF, which is so important to me personally and so important to so many families, especially at a time when birth rates are falling across the country, this is not the kind of issue we should be playing political football on,” Corbett said. “If you want to play games with other problems, fine. But this is truly life. This is the future of many families. “This is an economic hardship for many families.”

He said that he and his wife were insured and had their own businesses. In vitro fertilization was still eating away at their savings.

“I don’t know how a working family who wants to have children and is struggling to make ends meet can afford these expenses,” Corbett said. “This is definitely part of the cost-of-living equation for families right now, and I think more elected leaders, more candidates need to talk about this.”

Fertility voters may turn to Harris-Walz ticket

Some voters told USA TODAY they doubt Trump will follow through on his in vitro fertilization promises.

“He gave me no reason to believe anything he said,” said Sison, a former IVF patient from Virginia. “I don’t trust the Tories, especially on this issue.”

Sison said he has voted Republican for most of his life but supports Harris and her friend Tim Walz, who is running with his family. fertility struggles.

“He understands your desire to start your family or become a parent, to have all this love to give, and it’s out of your control. He understands that,” Sison said.

A recent KFF poll of female voters found that Harris 2 for 1 advantage against Trump on who can be trusted to do a better job setting policy on access to abortion, access to birth control, and in vitro fertilization rights.

Stephanie Vojas Taylor, a 41-year-old Chicago attorney and mother of two, conceived her first child through in vitro fertilization after struggling to get pregnant. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Roe v. Concerned that the decision to overturn the Wade case would jeopardize fertility treatment for other families, she helped draft an update to Illinois law to protect access to IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies.

“The deep despair you feel when you can’t have a baby, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” said Vojas Taylor, who estimates that she and her husband spent about $50,000 to give birth to their oldest son. “We need Republicans and Democrats to agree that people should have access to this treatment. Because at the end of the day, what matters is giving people options and increasing their chances of having a baby.”