Americans come up with new ways to raise money for IVF

How far would you go to raise money for IVF treatment? It’s no surprise when insurance companies see the word infertility or in-vitro fertilization they run, not wanting to help cover some of the cost. However, about six years ago, Brandi and Shelton Koskie was diagnosed with infertility, and could pay up to $20,000 for in-vitro fertilization, which was not covered by insurance, ABC News reported today. After being told about this news, they came up with a plan, to build a website, and call it BabyorBust.com, and to ask visitors for $1 donations towards their IVF. Soon the couple were being invited to appear on national television and radio shows, raising $7,500 in small donations from all over the world. Through investing and saving money on their own, they did reach their goal of $20,000 within two years. Welcoming their daughter named Paisley on their first IVF attempt, who is now a toddler. “People look in all crazy ways to cover their infertility treatments" Said Ken Mosesian executive director of the American Fertility Association, a nonprofit group. Since health insurance doesn’t cover IVF in most states, couples have come up with new, aggressive ways to raise money, fast, because the more time passes, the less likely a couple is to conceive. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 6.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 45 have fertility issues, which is about 10.9 percent of them. However, only 15 states have laws that require insurance companies to cover infertility treatments, and seven of them specifically exclude IVF, according to the National Infertility Association. Barbara Collura, the president and CEO of Resolve The National Infertility Association, said that they hunt for IVF funds has changed drastically in recent years. Five years ago couples were taking out second mortgages on their homes, going into debt to pay for their IVF treatments, said Mosesian’s colleague, Patricia Mendell, a member of the AFA board of directors. Back then, Barbra’s organization would hold workshops on how hopeful parents could refinance their homes or get personal loans to pay for IVF. However new economic realities make it much harder in today’s world. “Think about how difficult it is now to get credit cards, a lot of things that people could access cash with are either gone or very, very different now. Instead, people are turning to social media to ask their friends, families and strangers for money, either by building a website or just using a Facebook page. One couple even put a valuable Barry Sanders football card for sale on eBay last week to pay for IVF. The positive aspect of this is that people are talking about infertility more than ever before, Collura said. That includes the Koskie's, who have been open about Shelton's birth defect, which prevents his sperm cells from getting into his semen. The couple receives one to two letters a day from couples struggling with infertility. The most interesting one she’s heard about is a San Francisco couple that hosted a political campaign style dinner, charging guests they invited on Facebook and Twitter $35 a plate. Things could get easier for parents struggling to pay for IVF. A bill called the Family Act of 2011 is making its way through Congress, and it would offer a tax credit to help couples with out of pocket costs. Until then, couples like the Koskie's, and others like the Kassebaum’s of Palm Coast, Florida who struggle with infertility will just have to come up with new ways, since insurance companies will not recognize infertility. Article: 29th October 2012 www.examiner.com Photo source: ABC news

IVF loan adverts spark fury in New Zealand

Kiwis who've struggled to conceive are up in arms over ASB's new ad offering loans for IVF treatment. But why do would-be parents have to pay in the first place? Adam Dudding reports.
WHEN HE first saw the slickly sentimental new ad from ASB bank offering loans for fertility treatment, Roger Gray was ironing his work shirts. He was so shocked he almost dropped the iron.

"I thought it was disgusting," says the Auckland father-of-three, two of whose children were born with the help of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). "To me, it was exploitative of people who are in a desperate situation."

Gray and his wife went through their fertility treatment in Australia, where couples receive government subsidies that slash the cost of IVF to around $2000 per "cycle" for an unlimited number of cycles. In New Zealand would-be parents are fully funded for just one or two attempts, the waiting lists can be long, and eligibility depends on a stringent set of criteria. And outside the public system, they face spending $10,000-$12,000 of their own money per attempt. Private health insurers don't cover IVF (except, curiously, through one scheme offered only to employees of NZ Police).

"The government system here of restricting the number of opportunities to publicly fund IVF is not good," said Gray. "And then ASB is taking advantage of this to make money out of desperate people. I think it showed the worst side of banking."

Gray was just one of several parents with an insider's knowledge of fertility treatment who told the Sunday Star-Times they were uneasy, or even angry, about the 60-second IVF ad, in which a photogenically mopey couple struggling to conceive sell their vintage car to fund IVF, and then when that fails borrow ASB money for another cycle which culminates in triplets. The ad, which ASB says is based on the "real life" experiences of customers, is part of a major rebranding of the bank that seems set on portraying ASB not so much as a large Australian bank that lends and borrows money in exchange for interest, but as a quasi-benevolent organisation focused on "creating futures", and perhaps creating the odd set of triplets.

By Thursday afternoon, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) had received seven complaints about the ad, which first screened last Sunday, on the grounds that it was socially irresponsible, exploited a vulnerable audience or encouraged an unrealistic expectation of a successful outcome to fertility treatment.

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