Infertility Insurance
These days you can get insurance for anything! Your house, your health, your pets, your baby toenail, anything really! So it only makes sense that you can get infertility insurance too. You can understand why though. Having a baby the old-fashioned way is costly enough as it is; when you start adding all the fertility treatment it gets very expensive very quickly.
It’s terrible to think that your chances of getting pregnant depend largely on how much money you have available, and don’t even get me started on the shortcomings of the national health services, we could be here for days! That said, it’s good to keep in mind that even more expensive than having a child is raising, feeding, clothing and educating the munchkin – so going bankrupt to have your baby is really not the best idea when you’ve got a whole lot more expense coming your way.
Considering that about 10% of the reproductive age population of the US has problems with infertility, and that if you need drugs or ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies) you might need a couple of cycles of treatment – it makes sense to take out infertility insurance on top of all your other insurances. The idea, as with other types of insurance, is that you pay your dues every month and if you are diagnosed as being infertile by a doctor, and you aren’t over 40, and you didn’t know you were infertile before, and you’ve been a member of the scheme for over a year, and you have no moles, cavities or hangnails, then they pay for certain drugs, treatments, and procedures to help you get pregnant. As with all insurances, coverage is generally limited and there are some exclusions, so read your policy carefully.
Generally, the policy should include fertility testing, artificial insemination and embryo transfer, but some are reluctant to finance IVF – and who can blame them? It’s darned expensive! I think them sharks deny all claims the first time in the hope that you’ll give up, so be persistent and find out exactly what is covered by your policy and what isn’t – and remember that if it isn’t specifically excluded they have to cover it. I think the relationship between insurers and insurees is a good example of a love-hate relationship. You hate them but they do come in handy sometimes, if you can get through all the paper work and you don’t starve to death with a phone in your hand while they put you on hold. Who knows, you might be one of the lucky ones who lives in a state that requires standard health insurance to provide for fertility treatments so check out your local insurance commission if you’re not sure. Also, some insurance policies do offer fertility insurance as an extra option on top of the standard options.
If you’re not keen to spend hundreds of dollars on insurance every month on coverage you’ll probably never need for treatments that aren’t guaranteed to work, there are other options. Some fertility clinics require that you pay upfront but they refund a large percentage of the payment if you don’t get pregnant. You also get fertility finance products that loan you money for treatment – and again you generally only have to pay back the full amount if you actually do get pregnant. I like that idea – you only pay if it works. Did you know that in some countries you only pay the doctor when you’re healthy? If only it worked that way everywhere!
