How to Afford the Cost of Infertility Treatment
When it comes to infertility treatments the costs can accumulate quickly. Even worse, most insurance plans only cover infertility treatments partially or not at all. You and your partner should discuss going through infertility treatments because the medications and procedures can be emotionally and financially overwhelming. Make sure you know what you’re getting into before you jump right into infertility treatments. You should discuss how you will possible finance the treatments and how you will budget them. Here are some tips that can help you decide on how to pay for infertility treatments.
Being Able to Afford Infertility Treatments
Infertility treatment costs can add up quickly, even more than ever if you decide on assisted reproductive methods such as in vitro fertilization (IVF). Treatments such as in vitro fertilization can cost anywhere between $8,000-$20,000 which is based on how technical your case is. For example, if you’re a couple who needs intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) versus a couple who doesn’t, you’re cost is going to be much greater because ICSI is where a doctor directly injects sperm into an egg. This is considered a specialized treatment.
This can be very costly considering only about 1 in 3 woman who decide on in vitro fertilization will get pregnant and have a baby. It’s not even guaranteed that you’ll get pregnant on the first or even second time. Now if you’re paying $15,000 per treatment, then your costs are already at $30,000. How can you afford this?
Going Over Your Insurance Plan
Insurance companies don’t want to make it public that they may offer partial coverage to people who are infertile. Infertility is almost so common that if every couple did seek out help from their insurance companies, the insurance companies would go broke. Just because more reproductive endocrinologists (RE’s) and infertility clinics don’t take insurance, it doesn’t mean you can’t be compensated.
Go through your insurance policy very carefully, and once you’ve done that call the company and ask if they cover infertility treatments. If you read your insurance policy that they cover infertility treatments, then you can argue.
Flexible Spending Account
A flexible spending account is usually a benefit offered by your employer. This is where you are able to set aside pre-taxed income and make use of it in support of special cases (e.g., medical expenses which aren’t covered with your insurance).
There are usually limits on the types of treatments your flexible spending account can be used for, but in most cases infertility treatments is covered.
401(k)
401(k) is a retirement plan, which people dip into all the time. Some of these plans allow people to take money out of their 401, and if you’re trying to have a baby this seems like a possible solution to make ends meet.
Taking out a loan
Most fertility clinics offer payment plans. If you are finding it hard to pay for infertility treatments, you should consider taking out an equity loan against your house, or even a mortgage.
You can also use your credit cards. But be careful, you don’t want to take out to much where you can’t pay off the minimum every month. This will only cause more stress on you and your partner. You’re already dealing with fertility problems, why would you need to deal with credit card problems?
Sharing your risk and getting a refund
Some clinics allow you to pay upfront for IVF treatments. Then the shared risk program agrees to pay you back all your money or a portion of it if you don’t have a successful IVF cycle. You should research what “successful” accounts for, for each clinic you look at. They can be defined differently from each clinic. Try to find a clinic who defines ‘success’ as in having a baby. Therefore, you won’t lose all your money if you miscarry.
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November 28th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
This is such great information. When I was researching my options, I was amazed to find out that going abroad can cut the cost by 1/2. A regular IVF cycle (with a European vacation) was only about $7500 – a donor IVF cycle was around $10,000. There are several US based agencies that will walk you through the whole process – the one I used was http://www.myivfalternative.com.
November 29th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Wow, that is a significant decrease in cost. Do you mind me asking how much you ended up paying in the US?
November 29th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I paid around $25K for my first IVF cycle with my own eggs in the US, slightly less for the second one. When I was researching DE in the US, the costs were more like $32 – $40K per cycle.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:02 am
Wow! I can only remember looking around and seeing quotes from around $15-$20k.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:12 am
My $25K IVF cycle included PGD (my eggs are old, so it was recommended); the quotes I got for donor egg were including the donor fees (in house donors) and all medications for the donor too ($3 – $5K). They did have it all broken out, showing fees around $20K, but once I added the donor fees and everything required for the cycle it was in that $30K – $40K range.