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California - one of the most progressive states in the nation - currently does not mandate IVF coverage. At least 1.2 million Californians are experiencing infertility.
Assembly Member Buffy Wicks has introduced AB-2029, which would change the state’s current mandate from offer to a mandate to provide IVF coverage.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 8 couples experience infertility in the U.S. and yet an infertility diagnosis is not the largest barrier to becoming a parent: it’s cost. An average IVF cycle in the United States is $15,000. A recent survey found that women of reproductive age accrued $30,000 of debt on average after undergoing treatment. As such, only 1 in 4 people get the treatment needed to overcome infertility.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that reproduction is a “major life activity,” and “conditions that interfere with reproduction should be regarded as disabilities,” as per the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991. The World Health Organization and American Medical Association both define infertility as a disease.
Women of color disproportionately experience infertility. With adjustment for education, income, and self-reported pelvic inflammatory disease, married Black women had almost twice the odds of infertility as married white women.
When the University of Michigan began offering its employees IVF coverage, it saw a more equitable distribution of people using the benefit, with IVF use increasing more than nine times among women in the university’s lowest-salary bracket.
A majority of LGBTQ intended parents are looking to foster care, adoption, and assisted reproductive technology, like IVF, to start their families.
When intended parents are forced to cover the costs of treatment themselves, they make riskier decisions to save money and increase the probability of conception at the same time. Intended parents will often participate in “Reproductive Tourism” and travel to countries like India or Thailand for cheaper infertility treatments with more lax regulations than in the United States. In these situations, intended parents opt to transfer high numbers of embryos. This results in high-risk pregnancies, post-pregnancy complications and low birth-weight multiples—a cost burden to the state.
On average, it takes three cycles of IVF to yield a live birth. This decreases to two cycles for women under 35 years old. It should be noted, in comparison, that for heterosexual couples attempting a pregnancy without assisted reproductive technologies, the average success rate is 20%. With IVF coverage, intended parents can access the healthcare they need sooner, which yields better outcomes.
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