Insurance and IVF costs

Yikes, it looks like a mother, with one natural child, is pushing legislation in my home state to require insurance companies to cover the costs of invitro fertiliaztion, cause she's having trouble concieving a second child and believes the health insurance companies should PAY FOR IT!!! What the H**L! Costs need to be contained, and having a second natural child, is NOT a medical necessity. Again, a vent. Anyone else have experience with this happening in their state?

Here in MA, IVF is covered--as it is in some other states.

If I had my way, there would be no coverage whatsoever for repugnancy-related services; it is not medically necessary to spawn even once.

Keep working more hours, CF people! Millions of breeders depend on us.

Many states require IVF to be covered by health insurance plans, but the companies may impose a lifetime maximum benefit. The usual limitations are either a strict dollar amount (e.g. $25,000) or a specific number of cycles of treatment. You have the usual rabid wannabreed whining that the entire cost of producing a ferfreak litter should be covered, but even the most crazed breederpleezer legislators are not inclined to risk something that foolhardy. Vasovasostomy and other sterilization reversal procedures are almost never covered, and I can't think of one incident where I here they have ever been.

Were it up to me, contraception and sterilization would be covered at 100% with no deductible or co-pay and fertility drugs, procedures, maternity and other associated expenses would not only be denied but penalized with 5000% higher premiums!

It also pisses me off that famooly policies cost the same whether it's for a CF couple or for a megabrood such as the Duggars. The premiums should be per person.

I also believe that all forms of birth control should be covered at 100 percent with no deductibles.

Keep working more hours, CF people! Millions of breeders depend on us.

The cynic in me says that this is what the future holds:
reduced health coverage i.e. sorry geanie, but your blood pressure/cholesteral/insulin/heart medication won't be covered by insurance anymore. We had to cut somewhere to make up for the mandated reproductive coverage.
Work: sorry geanie,although you've been here 20++ years, you can't take your (long deserved) vacation or time off around holidays. Fambly requests come first. Also, realize that there are no more raises, and you'll have to work longer days. This is to cover the salary that we're going to pay those on maternity leave, and the hours are to do the extra work.
Taxes: no more discretionary income for singles. Money is needed for top of the line day care and to cover the public coffer losses due to the tax breaks for families. All families deserve McMansions, trips to Disneyland and high buck SUVs to haul the sprogs in.
Restaurants, museums, movies: don't even bother cause the famblies and sprogs are paramount and you are EXPECTED to be a doormat and put up with types of distruptive crap.
Again, a vent.

I absolutely agree with you, Geanie.

That is such a crock of shit. First of all, the obvious: IVF shouldn't be covered because NOBODY EVER DIED FROM NOT HAVING A KID**. 2. it's not as if the human race is in danger of dying out. Quite the contrary, we have too many people on the planet and we are absolutely choking the Earth.

If we start covering the cost of freak litters, something else is going to have to suffer. Covering fertility treatment is a huge pet peeve of mine because I am CF and I have the misfortune to have two diseases that affect fertility: PCOS and endometriosis. It's fucking hard enough to get treated for these conditions when you don't want to whelp. Many years ago, before PCOS was widely known, I went to see an endocrinologist (referred by my primary doc) who wanted him to check me out. (My testosterone level was 300x normal.) He never performed one test on me...he called his partner in and they both told me, don't worry about it, come see us WHEN you want to have children. My primary doc was FURIOUS.

Unfortunately, that attitude is not uncommon...many doctors will treat you for something THEY CAN GET PAID FOR. Fucking with medicine like this really fucks people who need to get treated, and not just knocked up.

Geanie, the Moo in question could get a child from foster care or could get a black child rather easily, but lemme guess, she's probably some Lily white whiner who wants her ooooooooown DNA. Geanie, I'm curious; is her current child a daughter? She may be under pressure to produce a son. Or, if it's a boy, she wants a little girl Just Like Herself(TM).

Nobody wants to tell this woman that the world won't fall of its axis if she doesn't have another child. Her sense of entitlement is huge. If she wants her own DNA fucktrophy, SHE SHOULD PAY FOR IT HERSELF.
But Politicians are spineless weasels....they'll milk it in front of the cameras: poor Moo and that Big Mean Insurance Company. They'll support it so they can wear the monniker of "fambily friendly" and "looking out for famblies," and they can't understand why insurance premiums are sky-high.

Covering the cost of BC makes economic sense: it's cheaper to pay for birth control than to pay for all the associated pignasty expenses and well loaf care. But covering IVF isn't just bad medicine--it's economic suicide. Once you cover the cost of IVF, it opens the door to increased health costs. IVF pignasties are more likely to have complications due to multiple births, placenta previa and premature births. We all get to pay for these little mirakuls.

**And, addressing the point above that not having a kid never killed anyone, you would not believe the hissy fits from the Moo WannaBes. They always invoke the C word: If you had cancer, you would get treatment! It's an insult to anyone who has had cancer or watched a family member die from it. See point above: If you don't get treated for cancer, you will likely die. Not so for IVF.

I'm all for treating reproductive disorders when it's a health issue. If you get pignant because you are more healthy, so be it. But IVF treats nothing except the lack of a baybee and it should not be covered under medical insurance.

What a crock of SHIT. This stuff makes my blood boil. I think all the stupid infertile wannabreeds SHOULD die from their IVF treatments. Bunch of dumb bitches.

Until the late 1970s, many health insurance policies did not cover pregnancy and childbirth expenses for the very reason you gave—it was akin to elective surgery, not "medically necessary". Congress mandated around that time that all insurers cover these expenses.

I got into an argument a little while back on a men's forum over health insurance paying for the pill vs. Viagra, since as you know most pay for the erectile dysfunction meds but not the contraceptive meds. The response I kept getting was, well, contraception is a personal choice, so why should insurers pay for it?

And my response was, getting an erection is not "medically necessary" for anyone. No one ever died from failure to get a hard-on or from lack of sex. And insurers are out more money paying for child health care expenses than they would be for the pill to prevent all that.

Geanie Wrote:
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> Work: sorry geanie,although you've been here 20++
> years, you can't take your (long deserved)
> vacation or time off around holidays. Fambly
> requests come first. Also, realize that there are
> no more raises, and you'll have to work longer
> days. This is to cover the salary that we're
> going to pay those on maternity leave, and the
> hours are to do the extra work.

I have learned to be a CUNT when it came to scheduling and having more time to myself on the job. Fuck it is Moo wants a weekend day off. If I had more seniority, I made certain the schedule fit *MY* needs. My former boss was very accommodating as he said I was his best guard who was reliable and would help out in a pinch. Ex-boss was a father but he had no patience with the moos who were always late or called out. On another site as well as the last one we worked together, the single and married moos learned really quick when it came to attendance issues. They would get a reality check when he called the security office telling the account manager that those guards were terminated from his site.

Regarding the original topic: health care costs --

My fucking head explodes when I hear of certain insurance companies not wanting to cover contraception or abortion due to the outcry from the religious crotches out there...yet fucking Viagra and make-your-own-babies via test tubes and other shit are practically given away like a piñata shitting out candies. I was glad when I had Blue Cross Blue Shield of FL that the company was more than happy to cover my tubal ligation...and would not take on new policy holders who were already pregnant. My tubal saved BCBSofFL major money since I am a non-breeder.

I wish there would be a childfree revolt. Sad thing is that anytime someone writes a book on this topic, s/he gets blasted. Anyone remember Eleanor Burkett and her book, The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless? She got totally hassled on TV and many Amazon.com reviews over her book. Ms. Burkett was called everything from "selfish", "jealous", "mean", etc, etc, etc. Many of the usual screamers were the moo audiences on talk shows where the author got an invite. She ended up leaving Sally Jesse's stage after so many booing from the breeder sows.

k-man Wrote:
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> Until the late 1970s, many health insurance
> policies did not cover pregnancy and childbirth
> expenses for the very reason you gave—it was akin
> to elective surgery, not "medically necessary".

We need to get back to that! If moos-to-be want policies that cover their issues, they should pay higher premiums.

Keep working more hours, CF people! Millions of breeders depend on us.

Yep. It's elective, not a necessity.

If insurance companies stopped picking up the tab for all this infertility shit and birth costs, maybe they'd have more money to shell out for people who really need it like cancer patients, etc.