Infertility Insurance and How It Relates To Suicide
One of the worst cases of insult to injury I'm familiar with is what happens when someone who just learned they are infertile next discovers they cannot afford infertility treatments because they don't have infertility insurance.
And even if one had the foresight to get infertility insurance, it is often rather expensive, not to mention an odd thing to insure against in advance of actually needing it.
Let's consider in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a key infertility treatment, and look at what that comes down to without infertility insurance.
Just one effort at IVF can cost in the strong five figures.
The bad news is that it can take more than one treatment before you see success.
Assuming that you try fertility drugs as an alternative, consider that these alone could run up to a thousand dollars each month.
If you didn't want to be on such a regimen, you could try another assisted reproductive technology, but even these can run $5,000 or so.
With these numbers floating around, you can see how many people cannot move forward without any infertility insurance.
That's not to say that infertility insurance is perfect, but it has helped a good number of people who would have been out of options unless they went into debt.
As you might imagine, there are more and more companies offering this, and it's worth looking into your choices.
The number of options you have are greater than might be expected.
For instance, you could be covered as far as diagnostic tests, reproductive technologies, and artificial insemination.
Some coverage will even include laparoscopic surgery.
But, you should realize that the infertility insurance has the goal of getting results for you as cost-effectively as possible, so the cheapest route to success is their objective.
Moreover, you may just find that some of the more advanced techniques, such as donor eggs or donor sperm are not covered by infertility insurance.
So, as you can see, it's important to check thoroughly into the scope of coverage.
Infertility insurance plans come in at least three different varieties.
One version is modeled after the standard type of health insurance plan.
With this approach, you simply pay a premium in exchange for a certain breadth of fertility coverage.
A second type of infertility insurance is known as a refund program.
With this model, you pay for treatment initially.
However, in a weird sort of way, you are insured against it not working.
Specifically, if you the treatment does not work, then part of the money you paid gets refunded to you.
The refunded portion will vary from plan to plan, but a usual range is somewhere in the 70-100% range.
A final type of infertility insurance is essentially financing.
With this method, you are issued a loan that covers the infertility procedures.
Similar to the refund method, if there is no success, you do not have to re-pay the loan.
This is a preferred method for those who cannot afford to come out of pocket for payment of the procedures.
Of course, as with nearly any insurance, you still have to qualify for infertility insurance.
It only stands to reason that we can't all just sit back and wait, and then only run out and infertility insurance after we discover we cannot conceive.
After all, life insurance is available during life, not after.
Getting the policy in advance is simple enough, but you have to make sure that you are within whatever age guidelines the company has in place.
As we know, infertility is an issue that rises with age increases.
There are also sometimes restrictions regarding time.
One such instance is that sometimes you have to have tried unsuccessfully for a period of time to conceive.
It's not unusual for couples to have to attempt to conceive for a year or longer before a successful pregnancy takes.
Obviously, the insurance company does not want to expend money to achieve something that was destined to happen anyway.
So, make sure you've attempted to conceive for the required time.
On the flip side, sometimes you will need to have held the policy for a while before it will pay.
This is similar to having a life insurance policy for 2 years before it will cover suicide.
You can buy right before you plan to use it, in other words.
Although it may seem a bit tricky trying to navigate the waters to obtain, and use, infertility insurance, the reality is that it has been a huge benefit to many couples.
In fact, it's safe to say that there are plenty of people who would not have had children without it.
And, in the events where it has paid, leaving the new parents in a financial position to care for their children is much better than having them go into enormous debt to have children they can no longer afford to raise.
And even if one had the foresight to get infertility insurance, it is often rather expensive, not to mention an odd thing to insure against in advance of actually needing it.
Let's consider in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a key infertility treatment, and look at what that comes down to without infertility insurance.
Just one effort at IVF can cost in the strong five figures.
The bad news is that it can take more than one treatment before you see success.
Assuming that you try fertility drugs as an alternative, consider that these alone could run up to a thousand dollars each month.
If you didn't want to be on such a regimen, you could try another assisted reproductive technology, but even these can run $5,000 or so.
With these numbers floating around, you can see how many people cannot move forward without any infertility insurance.
That's not to say that infertility insurance is perfect, but it has helped a good number of people who would have been out of options unless they went into debt.
As you might imagine, there are more and more companies offering this, and it's worth looking into your choices.
The number of options you have are greater than might be expected.
For instance, you could be covered as far as diagnostic tests, reproductive technologies, and artificial insemination.
Some coverage will even include laparoscopic surgery.
But, you should realize that the infertility insurance has the goal of getting results for you as cost-effectively as possible, so the cheapest route to success is their objective.
Moreover, you may just find that some of the more advanced techniques, such as donor eggs or donor sperm are not covered by infertility insurance.
So, as you can see, it's important to check thoroughly into the scope of coverage.
Infertility insurance plans come in at least three different varieties.
One version is modeled after the standard type of health insurance plan.
With this approach, you simply pay a premium in exchange for a certain breadth of fertility coverage.
A second type of infertility insurance is known as a refund program.
With this model, you pay for treatment initially.
However, in a weird sort of way, you are insured against it not working.
Specifically, if you the treatment does not work, then part of the money you paid gets refunded to you.
The refunded portion will vary from plan to plan, but a usual range is somewhere in the 70-100% range.
A final type of infertility insurance is essentially financing.
With this method, you are issued a loan that covers the infertility procedures.
Similar to the refund method, if there is no success, you do not have to re-pay the loan.
This is a preferred method for those who cannot afford to come out of pocket for payment of the procedures.
Of course, as with nearly any insurance, you still have to qualify for infertility insurance.
It only stands to reason that we can't all just sit back and wait, and then only run out and infertility insurance after we discover we cannot conceive.
After all, life insurance is available during life, not after.
Getting the policy in advance is simple enough, but you have to make sure that you are within whatever age guidelines the company has in place.
As we know, infertility is an issue that rises with age increases.
There are also sometimes restrictions regarding time.
One such instance is that sometimes you have to have tried unsuccessfully for a period of time to conceive.
It's not unusual for couples to have to attempt to conceive for a year or longer before a successful pregnancy takes.
Obviously, the insurance company does not want to expend money to achieve something that was destined to happen anyway.
So, make sure you've attempted to conceive for the required time.
On the flip side, sometimes you will need to have held the policy for a while before it will pay.
This is similar to having a life insurance policy for 2 years before it will cover suicide.
You can buy right before you plan to use it, in other words.
Although it may seem a bit tricky trying to navigate the waters to obtain, and use, infertility insurance, the reality is that it has been a huge benefit to many couples.
In fact, it's safe to say that there are plenty of people who would not have had children without it.
And, in the events where it has paid, leaving the new parents in a financial position to care for their children is much better than having them go into enormous debt to have children they can no longer afford to raise.
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