Infertility treatments: Who will pay?
(cz) For most people, making a baby involves the right mate, the right mood and the right medley of hormones. For Heidi and Justin Dierking, it also required the right insurance.
Married for three years, the Dierkings of St. Paul have been trying to get pregnant. Several months ago, they began considering in-vitro fertilization. With IVF, as it’s called, doctors coax egg and sperm together in a petri dish and implant the resulting embryo. It works about half of the time.
For the Dierkings, the stumbling block was price: IVF costs about $10,000 and their insurance didn’t cover it. They talked about using credit cards, or taking out a home equity loan.
But Justin Dierking’s employer had just been bought by a rival company. After his wife bugged him for weeks, he called to ask about benefit changes. He found out they now had a $20,000 maximum for infertility treatment. “He was on the phone, I was in the kitchen, and I said: ‘What?!” recalled Heidi Dierking. “$20,000?!” Suddenly, a baby was possible.
The Dierkings are one of thousands of infertile couples learning that the serendipity of their insurance coverage is the main factor making it possible to have a child. more…
From: »Minneapolis StarTribune«