The cover story of the Toronto Star this past Saturday was about how Quebec funds IVF and Ontario doesn’t (except under certain conditions). I read the story and was very sad. The two couples had nearly identical problems (male factor infertility, in one case caused by cancer treatments), and they were not old, very early 30s! The couple in Quebec got lucky and conceived on the first round of IVF (like we did), it was funded. The couple in Ontario have spent more than $25,000 for two full rounds plus a frozen embryo round and are still childless. It’s heartbreaking. And controversial.
Quebec funds three rounds no matter what the cause of infertility is, Ontario funds only for blocked Fallopian Tubes.
Many people see infertility treatment as elective, and it is. If you look at the online comments for that article there are some very strong words about AIDS, Cancer and the frivolity of funding IVF. But, I think the desire to procreate is largely genetic and, well, necessary. I know we have too many people on this planet but…it’s certainly a drive. I’ve felt it. I’ll bet most of you have.
Regardless, fertility treatments are here to stay. The for profit centres often have questionable practices, like putting in multiple embryos, resulting in multiple births, a lot! One of the goals of Multiple Births Canada is to help reduce the number of multiple births. Seems contradictory, no? NO. Multiple pregnancies, deliveries and infancies are much higher risk than singletons. MUCH. Very costly both financially and emotionally. So, we would actually save money in the long run. And save a lot of heartache for people who want a child.
According to The Star article, Ontario might actually save between $400 & $550 million dollars (over 10 years) by funding IVF (I have no idea where the stats are from but The Star & CBC do).
In Quebec the incidence of multiple births has declined by 5% in a year. That seems significant.
I realize that I am biased here but, it seems it may actually save money and save some people a lot of heartache. Infertility is devastating to many people.
What do you think? Should we fund three rounds like Quebec does?
Hmm…I’m with Erin and moosegrumpy on this score. Because if you suggest that people who can’t afford IVF shouldn’t be having children because they can’t afford them, it unfairly discriminates against infertile couples. Nothing stops dirt-poor people from having children if they don’t have fertility issues: many of them are far less able to afford children than the young professional couples (like moosegrumpy) who just don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on fertility treatments. It’s a thorny issue, because wanting children is (for most of us) a very strong drive, and yes, raising kids can be an expensive proposition.
But it all boils down to judgments: what you consider “the proper things in life” may be ridiculous to others. Some families buy their 16 year-olds cars as a matter of course; I would never even consider it. I believe extracurricular activities help my children develop into well-rounded individuals, but I get that other people don’t see the same value and/or can’t afford them…does that mean they can’t afford “the proper things” for their children and should therefore be prevented from having them? I’m not prepared to go that far.
I don’t see how not being able to afford fertility treatments means you can’t afford to have children. Just because you can’t afford to pay $30 000 for something doesn’t mean you can’t afford to pay a few hundred dollars a month for groceries! For pete’s sake saying that you can’t afford children because you can’t afford fertility treatments is like saying you can’t afford to stay in a cheap hotel one night because you can’t afford a luxury hotel for 2 weeks. Or my Mom not allowing me to join a baseball team when I was a kid because I didn’t like aimlessly throwing a ball around. The amounts are totally different. I could never afford to pay $30 000 for something but I can afford to raise my 4 kids just fine.
As a woman who has been there I feel this is an unfair comment. My husband and I had reached the limit in treatment of what our doctor felt could be done before going to IVF. We sat in his office with him telling us that if we could just right a cheque for $8000 that we could get started. I’d consider us to be middle class but as a couple in their early 30’s at the time with a house purchase behind them these were not readily available funds for us and they were also just the start. We could have taken a loan but we felt that paying off the loan was not what we wanted to be doing while raising a child.
That all said we have gone on to be parents through adoption and find that we are perfectly capable of raising our child as a middle income family.
Sandra,
Your comment sounds very judgmental of low/mid income people. I don’t think that’s fair. Are you saying that only people with lots of money should be parents? What do you mean by the proper things in life? Are you saying that low income women would sign up and get pregnant through IVF so they can collect money from the government? Why wouldn’t they just go out and have sex if that was their plan.
As for the savings, I did say that I don’t know where the data came from. I’m quoting The Toronto Star article and a CBC article that made those claims.
If you can’t afford the fertility treatments then chances are you can’t afford to raise children to give them the proper things in life. Low income potential moms would sign up (hey it’s FREE) and the taxpayer would have to foot the bill to raise these kids.
And no, I don’t see how this would “save money.” Your statements with regard to this are extremely vague.
Perhaps you would care to elaborate how EXACTLY this would save money.
There are MANY more causes more worthy of extra government funding than this one.
I have no problem with 3 rounds being funded.
We watched friends struggle and and cash in their savings, remortgage their house to get pregnant when all it took was for Sean to look at me and I got pregnant…it was heartbreaking. And didn’t seem fair.
Wanna talk about funding? Talk to an ASD mom who doesn’t do ABA…
Grrrr…
The same debate has been going on in Alberta since 2008. Any fertility therapy above and beyond what can be administered by your family physician is not covered, and of course we pay for all prescriptions our private health insurer doesn’t cover. There are non-profit organizations, like Generations of Hope out of Calgary’s Regional Fertility Program, that provide financial assistance when they can, but there is only so much they can do.
So, do I think IVF should be covered? Yes, I really do. Especially in light of the success of Quebec’s single embryo transfer program. I consider myself an environmentalist. I am concerned about over-population. But children are joy. Period. And I don’t think the world’s problems will be solved if we decide to bring less joy into it.