YES, it would help
dianafunk posted 4 weeks 3 days ago — I got a message in my inbox yesterday from Barbara Collura, Executive Director of RESOLVE, the national infertility association, entitled, "Would it help if you had insurance coverage?"
Um, yes. To conceive Madeleine cost us roughly $25,000, what with the testing, medications and procedures involved. Embryo storage costs us another $800 per year. Neither my nor Joe's insurance coverage at the time covered any sort of reproductive therapy benefit. Basically, as soon as we received an infertility diagnosis, our insurance companies wiped their hands clean of us.
We didn't happen to have a spare $25,000 sitting around, so we utilized a creative combination of loans and savings to fund our adventure. If we hadn't gotten pregnant when we did, we would have had to scrounge up even more money to try again, and still have been responsible for paying the initial chunk back.
This time around, Joe's insurance does have a fertility treatment benefit, but unfortnately, it doesn't cover the procedure we need to get pregnant. It's nice that his company even offers this benefit, because in the state of Virginia, insurance companies are not required to provide any sort of insurance coverage.
Do you find this as ridiculous as I do? That people who can't conceive on their own -- through no fault of their own -- have no options other than to incur massive debt or kidnap in order to become parents?
Well, there's hope, at least for Virginia residents. From Barbara's email:
On November 19, 2008, the Special Advisory Commission on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits will vote on Virginia Senate Bill 631, important legislation introduced by Senator Patsy Ticer, that would require health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and corporations providing accident and sickness subscription contracts to provide coverage for the treatment of infertility in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
This Governor-appointed committee of legislators and citizen representatives heard testimony from a large group, including RESOLVE and RESOLVE volunteers, on October 27th. In addition, the Commission heard from thousands of you with your emails and faxes. Now it is imperative that they hear us one more time before this vote. We need your voice! Please email the Commission members and ask them to support SB 631. If you are a constituent of one of the Commission members, it is especially important that you make sure that he or she knows that.
To send an email letter to the elected Commission members, please click here.
To send an email to one of the citizen Commission members, please email them at SAPCMandatedBenefits@scc.virginia.gov
Virginia residents, please do this for me, and for all the other couples in our state who are in the same boat as Joe and me. It will take a minute of your time, but could really make a difference for infertile couples.
Everyone deserves to be a parent, don't you think?
