[embroider]

We have an insurance plan that will cover some stuff but not everything.

I know that IVF in our area is around 8-10K, which is pretty pricey for us.

So what did you do to come up with funds to pay for everything? Any ideas would be great!

[Jackie5]

I don't know if you'd call this good debt or bad debt but we charged our first IVF. If you have a lot of infertility work ahead of you, I would suggest maybe switching jobs to a company that has really great infertility coverage. I'm not sure how infertility is covered when you switch insurance companies - if it's underwritten or whatever.

The one time we switched with the same doctor, she said that they might be difficult and expect six months of trying or whatever but she documented that we had been trying (on our own) when in fact I was still breast-feeding and not getting my period so I wasn't really trying. But I had had a history of six years of infertility and she had diagnosed me with PCOS so I don't feel we were pulling the wool over the insurance company, just playing against time since I was already 37 at the time.

My husband's insurance during our second round of treatments was great. It paid for all medicine and IVF up to like 30K or something. We didn't end up having to use all that.

Good luck and tell us what you end up doing.

Have you considered going with a practice that has one of those guarantees where you don't pay unless you get pregnant? I'm not sure how much you have to pay! Anybody have any experience with those sorts of deals?

[Joni2]

One of my best friends just got a home equity loan so they could continue treatments. They hesitated to do it, but finally decided they'd rather take longer to pay off their house than give up on getting pregnant. I just think it's sad we have to make choices like that.

[Joni2]

Jackie- Can you tell us what insurance company your husband had? It sounds great. I'd be more than willing to change jobs if it would improve my health care.

[Jackie5]

Whoops. I made a mistake when I said it covered up to 30K. I just checked and I think they've got a limit of 15k now but that might just be enough for two rounds of IVF, depending on the meds coverage. It's not the insurance company but the benefits that the employer will pay out for.

My husband used to work for Microsoft. I used to think that their fertility coverage was mandated by state law (they're headquarted in WA state) but just checked and WA is not a fertility friendly state yet.

Where do you live? I'm probably only going to try one more time and I'm going to stick with IUI since it worked the last time. But if I had a lot of work to do, I'd definitely move to a fertility friendly state like Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey or New York.

What type of fertility coverage do you have now with your present employer?

Jackie