Hi, and welcome to Affording IVF! This site is devoted to helping people through the financial minefield of fertility treatments, and medical care in general. Modern medicine, especially services that are seen to be more “elective” such as infertility treatments can be costly, and often clinics operate with very little transparency during the care process making it difficult to figure out how much money your care is going to cost you. An educated consumer can ask the right questions to significantly reduce the uncertainty involved in determining the cost of any medical care. In my goal to educate visitors, I will cover everything from how to deal with your insurance company to what questions to ask your fertility clinic to make sure you have all the necessary information required to make informed decisions through your treatment. I will cover topics such as what types of insurance make the most sense for you, budgeting, acquiring financing for your care, and much more.
Let me introduce myself, my name is Emily and I want to help you.
I’m the mother of IVF twins who are fast approaching their teenage years. A lot has changed since I went through this process. The success rates are improving — and good clinics will now only put in one embryo at a time – due to the risk to both the mother and the babies with multiples.
One thing that surprised me after the kids were born was the price of childcare. When people say babies are expensive, they are not talking about diapers and formula. They are talking about childcare if both parents continue to work outside the home. Expect to pay over $10k a year per child. Of course, this may be cheaper in other parts of the US. Or you may be lucky enough to have a grandparent nearby.
It is often surprising how little people know about their insurance benefits – and I can’t say I blame them. Have you seen those huge small print benefit booklets the insurance companies send out? I have to be honest and say I typically don’t read much of mine either. Now, this is usually not a big deal. you break your arm, or get sick and see a doctor and you can have a pretty good idea of what to expect as far as the costs go. You probably look to see if the office takes your insurance and call it good at that. And for most things, that is more than enough. If you are lucky enough to have health insurance these days then those visits are covered (more or less, depending on the quality of your insurance). Although, for those of us with marginal insurance coverage, anyone with a catastrophic policy for example (myself included) things can get a little trickier as coverage can vary widely from policy to policy. More on that type of thing later…
Although the site will deal mostly with strategies and techniques for helping patients plan, and pay for their fertility treatments as that is my primary expertise, I will also be providing information that can be helpful for anyone who is going through any kind of medical treatment. If you have any questions, or topics that you would like me to discuss feel free to post them in the comments or use the contact form on the bottom of the page to email me directly. Remember, my goal is to help educate, so don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have. Because if you have a question it is very likely it is shared by many more people. Enjoy!
Best,
Emily