ST PAUL, Minn. — DFL lawmakers have launched a new effort to require insurance carriers to cover the cost of fertility treatments here in Minnesota. The "Minnesota Building Families Act," introduced as House File 1658 and Senate File 1704, is aimed at sparing couples the financial hardships they otherwise will take on while trying to get pregnant.
One in seven women have trouble getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term, according to the nonprofit Resolve, also known as the National Infertility Association. Your odds of getting medical treatment for infertility often depend on where you live, who your employer is, or how much money you can pull together to cover the cost of those treatments.
"For many families, an infertility diagnosis is not the largest barrier to becoming a parent. Sadly, it’s the out-of-pocket costs," Barb Collura, president and CEO of Resolve, told reporters at a State Capitol press conference.
"Struggling to build a family is already physically and emotionally exhausting," she said. "The lack of insurance for needed medical insurance is doubly crushing."
She said Minnesota is one of 29 states that don't require insurance carriers to cover those costs. Some major employers cover it, as does the health plan for state workers. But tens of thousands of couples experiencing infertility must pay for it out of pocket.
"We know people are experiencing infertility, and there are medical services available to them to treat it," Sen. Erin Maye Quade of Apple Valley, the lead author of the Senate bill, said.
"It is a disease for some people like anything else and health insurance should cover it, plain and simple, public and private."
Quade said her family's fertility treatment was covered because she's a state employee, but she knows that's not the case for many, including some of the couples who joined her at the news conference.
Miraya and Andy Gran were married in 2015 and spent years trying to have a successful pregnancy.
"Seven fertility treatments and seven heart-wrenching miscarriages later, we were left with tens of thousands of dollars to pay," Miraya Gran said.
"We had to take out a second mortgage on our home," she said. "Horrific emotional pain of infertility is devastating enough but to add on the crippling financial impact was an extremely difficult time in our lives."
They ended up holding fundraisers to pay for their last try. And in 2021, they conceived their daughter Ila.
The experts say IVF coverage helps prevent multiple births that can result from less-expensive fertility methods.
"Insured patients are more likely to choose a single embryo transfer, and this lowers the number of multiple births which generates huge cost savings for insurance carriers and leads to healthier mothers and babies," Dr. Chandra Shenoy, an infertility specialist at the Mayo Clinic, told reporters.
"Most of the patients I see don’t need IVF or highly invasive treatment, but many delay seeing a doctor because they don’t have insurance coverage, and these delays increase the likelihood they will need more invasive treatments."
To show you how long this fight's been going on, Jeff and Amy Hill came to the Capitol holding a 1989 Star Tribune article by the late columnist Jim Klobuchar, about their first baby that was born with the help of science.
"We have two daughters from GIFT — gamete intrafallopian transfer — which is an old out-of-date technology. Our daughters are in their 30s now and we have our first grandchild," Jeff Hill told reporters.
Amy Hill said they paid for the expensive procedures out of pocket, and she's been advocating for universal coverage of fertility treatments since then.
Rep. Jeff Brand of St. Peter, the lead author of the House bill, said it's also a workforce development issue. He asserted states that mandate fertility coverage will have a recruiting advantage compared to those that don't.
So far, no hearings have been scheduled on these fertility treatment bills. But Rep. Brand and Sen. Maye Quade expressed confidence their bills will be given serious consideration this session.
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