So far this year (and we're only in April) our insurance has been billed $27,276.55 for infertility treatments. Jimmy and I are incredibly fortunate to have health insurance that covers infertility, so fortunately, we don't have to pay anywhere near that amount. However, many couples are not that lucky. Most states don't require health insurance companies to provide infertility benefits, so a lot of people have to pay for this out of pocket. For some reason, they don't see infertility as a disease that is necessary to treat. They see it as something that's elective, like plastic surgery. I don't know about you, but it's not an option for me not to have children, and for insurance companies to treat it as if it is an option is an outrage to me.
I don't know what we would do if we didn't have insurance to cover these costs, but I imagine that we would go into debt in order to have a child, like so many people do. This is why it is important to raise awareness about this disease - so that couples are able to start a family without having to pay thousands and thousands of dollars. Because of all of the hardships of infertility, we are so thankful that this is one less thing that we have to worry about.
This week is Infertility Awareness Week, and I encourage you to go to http://www.resolve.org/ to read more about infertility and how you can help.
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