Trump signs order exploring ways to lower cost of IVF treatments
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US President Donald Trump's order, however, does not do anything immediately to lower those costs or expand access to such reproductive treatments.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an order that directs his team to produce policy recommendations to lower health plans’ and out-of-pocket costs for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), amid criticism that his abortion policies would reduce access to the treatment.
Mr Trump’s order, which was signed on Feb 18, however, does not do anything immediately to lower those costs or expand access to such reproductive treatments.
Most states currently do not require insurers to cover IVF, which involves combining eggs and sperm in a laboratory dish to create an embryo for couples having difficulty conceiving. Even with insurance coverage, IVF can cost thousands of dollars in drugs and medical procedures.
IVF treatments became a political flashpoint during the 2024 election, following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos could be considered children.
That led clinics in the state to suspend the procedure until Alabama’s Republican governor signed legislation protecting health-care providers from liability.
Mr Trump moved to distance himself from that court ruling and sought to rebrand himself as a protector of reproductive rights, including calling himself the “father of IVF” at a town hall.
He said during the campaign that under his administration, the government or insurance companies would be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment, but did not detail how he would achieve that goal.
More than 85,000 infants were born as a result of IVF in 2021, the White House said in a fact sheet, citing data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Costs can range from US$12,000 (S$16,000) to $25,000 per cycle and multiple cycles may be needed to get pregnant.
The US fertility rate dropped 3 per cent in 2023 from 2022, the White House said, and decreased by 2 per cent annually between 2014 and 2020.
The US birth rate was 1.67 births per woman in 2022, according to World Bank data, below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed to maintain the population without immigration.
Mr Trump nominated three of the US Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe versus Wade’s nationwide protections for abortion rights and struggled to articulate his views on reproductive care as he sought to appeal to his conservative base and women angered by the high court’s ruling. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
