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The right to have a baby is something most of us take for granted, and we often lose sight of the fact that one in ten married couples will not be able to have the child they want. Infertility is a very common problem, and if you stop to think about it, you will realize that you know at least one person who is infertile amongst your own group of friends or relatives. However, it remains one of those taboo topics, which no one wants to talk about, even though it interferes with one of the most fundamental and highly valued human activities - building a family.
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Millions of infertile couples in Indian cities today face many obstacles in their attempts to build a much-wanted family, and one of the most frustrating is the lack of insurance coverage for medical treatment. What this means is that while infertility specialists in India can provide even the most advanced reproductive techniques to solve extremely complex infertility problems, at a level of sophistication that is comparable with that in the West (and at a fraction of the price) most couples cannot avail of these techniques because these are not covered by their insurance policy. So near - and yet so far would sum up the situation for most couples! The financial burden that some of the treatments may place on couples can be large, and adding this on to the emotional and physical consequences of experiencing infertility can literally be the last straw which breaks the camel's back. The strong desire to build a family gives many the strength to face these obstacles, but infertile couples also need additional support from their employers and insurance companies!
While most diseases and medical conditions are covered by insurance, the disease of infertility is often singled out for exclusion, and such discrimination is unfair! Thus, to add further insult to injury, infertile couples not only face the emotional pain associated with not being able to have a child, but also face obstacles put in front of them by their health insurance and employers for reimbursement of the medical expenses they incur on their treatment!
Unfortunately, insurance companies in India still do not provide health insurance coverage for infertility. This is a very archaic attitude, but because the insurance industry in India is still a monopoly, this situation is unlikely to change, until the field gets privatized, or Indian companies fall in line with their Western counterparts. Insurance companies have traditionally denied claims for infertility on one of the following flimsy pretexts.
However, it has now been well established that infertility is an illness, which is caused by various medical causes which result in the abnormal functioning of the reproductive systems (such as blocked fallopian tubes or a low sperm count); and that these can be successfully treated in most cases. Medically necessary is usually defined by insurance policies as medically appropriate for treatment of an illness under professionally recognized standards of health care and treatments such as GIFT, IVF, and ZIFT are now universally acknowledged to be standard medical treatments, which are no longer experimental. While certain infertility treatments can be costly, most are quite inexpensive, and only about 5% of all infertile couples will need expensive treatments like IVF. Moreover, if expensive medical procedures like bypass surgery can be covered, then why should treatment for an abnormally functioning reproductive system be excluded?
© Dr. Aniruddha Malpani and Dr. Anjali Malpani www.drmalpani.com
Credits: How to Have a Baby: Overcoming Infertility
