Funding IVF (or any IF treatment)

UMichGirl · May 2011

I'm just curious how you and your DH pay for IF stuff...does your insurance cover it? Have you taken out loans? Have you waited to do treatment so you could save up to pay OOP?

We have been fortunate with what our insurance has covered in terms of monitoring, but no IF treatments are covered at all. When we were doing IUI's it wasn't a huge deal. Now that we're moving on to IVF (and wondering how many IVF's will it take...if it will work at all...how many will we be willing or able to do...and will we need to move to donor eggs which is even more expensive...) I'm starting to freak out just a little bit. Zip it!

DH and I have been talking about our options but I'm curious how everyone handles the finances of IF (who is comfortable and willing to share). We've talked about it quite a bit tonight and frankly I'm pretty depressed about all of it at the moment!

STL34 · May 2011

We saved and used our savings to pay for our IVF cycles. However, we are starting to run out of money and it is starting to feel like we have been throwing money away for nothing. If we find success before we run out, then it wouldn't feel worthless. However, that may not happen and we cannot afford DE (at least not right now).

ETA - Like the other ladies that answered we are OOP for IF treatment.

thebeadinglady · May 2011

Thankfully our insurance covers 100% of 3 IVFs. We just have to pay co-pays for the meds which usually ends up being $150-$300. Once our insurance is done, we are done. It would take us years and years to save up enough to cycle OOP, and after being on a year break to lose weight I know I couldn't handle that long of a break again.

mm29 · May 2011

Our cars were almost paid off. We refinanced them and took out the "equity". We were able to borrow enough for a three cycle IVF package.

baze2 · May 2011

We are "older" and have both been saving all our lives. We have paid cash for all our cycles from our savings and sold a few stocks. Well we used a cc but paid it off. We used the cc to get the cash back (every little bit helps).

We have done 3 IUI's, Two IVF's converted to IUIs and are now doing DE. We are oop for everything..I think it will be worth it! All to bring home our forever baby!

meganfauer · May 2011

We are all OOP, we have a very supportive family and my mother, father and my DH's parents all gave us money. We then used savings and took out a loan to pay the rest. It did not work so will now be paying that loan for IVF #1. Luckily for us there was a medical mistake (they think) and are beginning IVF #2 paid for by the RE. We do have to pay for the meds and I have been working hard to get meds donated to me or buy then from women who are willing to sell what they had left.

We were very fortunate to have family offer us money for IVF #1 but until we heard the news from our RE that there was a mistake we were at a huge loss and there was no way that IVF #2 was going to be possible anytime in the near future.

That being said I will leave you with one thing my mother said in the beginning of all this that has stuck with me. She told me "you will go and buy a $30,000 car, I am sure if you want a child badly enough you can find that kind of money for IVF, figure out and make it work"

That statement was so true for me. Wishing you the best of luck!

matt'sbride · May 2011

All of the IVF treatments are OOP for us. It totally sucks. Luckily, when we found out that IVF was our only option, we had been saving up already to pay off our house. We had fair amount saved so that's how we've paid for IVF.

A friend brought it to my attention that the Lord works in mysterious ways. We just HAPPENED to be saving a lot of money at the time for something that we really didn't need to be in a rush to take care of - then IF became an issue.

I hope you guys can find a way to pay for it all.

Mayan2011 · May 2011

In Canada the only Province that covers IVF is Quebec, but we live in BC. Also, 99% of the benefit packages in this country do not cover IVF. Our national health care system, however, will cover the u/s, b/w, and other diagnostic procedures and most benefits will cover meds.

So, for our particular situation, we have to pay for the ICSI/IVF procedure OOP and fortunately, we have been in a position to pay for treatments without going into debt or having to take a break to save. It breaks my heart to read posts from ladies that have to take breaks to save up for their next treatment. Babies shouldn't be a luxury and as far as I am concerned, any developed country should have fertility treatment coverage for all citizens.

Temp935838312504158 · May 2011

Financing IVF is definitely a stressful topic of conversation. There are definitely all kinds of options out there but they aren't for everyone. You will just need to do what is best for you & your situation.

For us, we were completely OOP for IVF. My hubby & I are very fortunate that we both make good money. For the 1st round we used savings & put the remaining amount on a "0% interest for 12 mos" credit card. For the 2nd round we again used some savings for the meds & for the remainder took out a loan against my retirement @ 4% interest with no penalties. The monthly payment is deducted out of my paycheck every month. I didn't really want to do this but the interest rate was cheaper than getting a personal loan or using a different credit card. For our FET next month we will be using savings.

Wishing you luck with your journey & hope you are able to figure out a financing option that works for you!

madelyn07 · May 2011

No insurance coverage, no loans, no credit cards.

We've just paid for everything with cash. I wouldn't go into debt (loan or CC) for treatments so, if were in the position of continuing treatments and the money ran out, we'd stop.

I also refuse to use savings. So..if we weren't able to pay for it with money in our checking account, it wouldn't happen.

mdluv21 · May 2011

We used almost all of our savings and my MIL donated some money to the cause...We even had to put a small amount of the meds on a CC but paid that off quickly.

It was all worth it but then we lost the twins. Sad

We have enough left in savings for one or two FET and then after that I don't know what we will do...maybe pull equity out of our house? Being OOP sucks...a lot.

jillmatheny · May 2011

I am incredibly lucky to have coverage for 3 IVF cycles b/c I live in a mandated state. DH's insurance covers 100% where mine covered 50%. We've paid about $4k oop for 2ivf cycles this year.

stei8086 · May 2011

We were lucky enough to participate in two studies for IVF #1 & #2. Therefore, we only had to pay a few thousand for the both, which we paid in cash.

Now that we are going on IVF#3, we are going to use half savings and half 0% credit card. I am not happy that we have to do this, but a baby is priceless. We bought a two cycle package. After those run out, we are done and will begin saving for DE or Adoption.

I wish there was a way to raise money for this. I truly had thought about it. I mean there are fundraisers for everything else, why not this??? Bake sale, a race, a sock sale... I guess I am just not ready (and I know my DH isn't) to let the whole world hear our story! Plus I feel bad, there are people who need money for things that are life-threatening. Although, infertility feels life threatening at times.

Good luck!

inlovewithB · May 2011

We pay for everything OOP. Both IUI's we used money in our checking account. IVF we put on a credit card and paid it off in two months.

We are moving back to IUI because we can't afford another round of IVF without selling stocks and mutual funds right now.

Mandy_Lou83 · May 2011

We are very lucky b/c we have monitoring covered at 100% and drugs covered at 100% after a $1300 oopk max.

Out of our 5 IUI's we only paid for 3 and those were paid for out of our checking account.

For IVF we got a two cycle shared risk plan. We put the entire amount on a 12 month 0% interest credit card w/ reward points. We paid some of it off w/ a commission I earned from selling a house and the rest will either be paid for by the portion we get back from both cycles not working or if it does work by our income tax return that is sitting in our savings account.

If our 2nd one doesn't work we will pay for a 3rd one from our income tax return money. If we have to, we may pay for a 4th one out of our savings and then file again on income taxes.

Jackie2200 · May 2011

I live in a mandated state so my DH's insurance covers IVF, but that insurance costs us $1,000 a month, so basically, it's like paying for an IVF cycle since we've been on that policy for a year now. It was a big drop in pay but we've just cut out alot of other things like clothes shopping, going out to eat, long weekends, etc.

For a while, when we were on other insurance and doing IUIs, we were OOP for everything but U/S and B/W. We cut out travel and things like that to pay for it. We also used a flexible spending account.

snoangel79 · May 2011

In MA I get up to six cycles paid for for the IVF part. The donor egg part (her fee, agency fee, coordination fees with my RE, and her testing) we pay for. To be honest the only way we are affording this (about $20k) is a settlement I received for my lymphoma being msdx for so long and the kicker is the treatment is what cost me my fertility in the first place. If it was found earlier there would be no fertility issues (my fertility was tested before my bone marrow transplant and it was still a-ok), the chemo I would have needed would have been far less. Yes, I may have had issues younger but we still could have done something with my own eggs.

DeputiesWife · May 2011

we are using our savings for what our insurance doesnt cover.

lenebene · May 2011

I live in a state where we have IUI/IVF coverage but since I was dx with POF, I couldn't use our insurance and we are OOP for DE. We took out a loan that our clinic works with.

abvernon · May 2011

Anything related to and the procedure of IUI is covered at 50% (appointments, monitoring, meds and the IUI procedure)

As for the IVF, it is a little different. They will cover the meds and the monitoring appointments at 50%.

However, the IVF procedures themselves are not covered.

kthappy76 · May 2011

We used our IF coverage (until it was gone), we also had $ saved in an old HSA (for L&D, we were so naive) which we exhausted, then we set up a new FSA (usually up to $5K/pp/yr) which we used up too, then we used income/savings. I also looked seriously at companies that offer IF insurance coverage. If changing jobs is an option for either of you, this seriously beats taking out loans. You might want to talk to your RE about what they think your prospects of success might be w/IVF. You might want to look into a shared risk program where you get some of your $ back if you don't take home a baby after the prepaid cycles (esp since you have coverage for monitoring). Best of luck!

apaige25 · May 2011

Some came from our tax return, a little bit from savings, and the rest from a credit card I found that was running a special for 24 months no interest on balance transfers. I know citicard is offering 21 months no interest on purchases and balance transfers.

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