Desperate couples try to defray expensive treatment costs

More and more couples are resorting to internet crowd-funding sites to finance their IVF treatments in the United States. According to a report in Bloomberg, an important element is the lack of government IVF funding and lack of insurance coverage. Only about a quarter of companies offer IVF as part of their health cover.

Funding for IVF has become a robust category at GoFundMe.com, where more than $3.6 million has been raised across more than 1,700 IVF campaigns, with almost 37,000 individual donations. Total IVF gifts and campaigns have increased every year since the company’s launch in 2010. On Giveforward.com … the category that includes both IVF and adoptions is the fastest growing, up 429 percent over the first eight months of this year compared with the same period in 2015

Desperate for a pregnancy, couples also cover the cost of IVF cycles with credit card debt and by raiding their 401(k) retirement savings accounts. 

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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