OHIP IVF Payment
Despite the risk of appearing churlishly unsympathetic, there are many Ontarians who feel that the health care system has more than enough to cover under its shrinking economic canopy - that it should not too cover in vitro fertilization for all sterile couples who feel it is their entitled right to have such treatment paid for. The choice to have children is a very personal one. It is a costly venture, when a lifetime of raising children and tending to their needs is considered, in parental time, energy and affordability. And it remains a personal decision.
While it is true that society in general benefits hugely from a population that raises children in a healthy family environment, those people who find they are unable to conceive naturally and require the assistance of medical science, should be prepared to pay their own way, and if in vitro fertilization is the way they choose, it should be their monetary investment, not that of the entire social system. The health program is set up to care for medical and health conditions, and artificially assisted childbirth is not one of those.
The Province of Ontario through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan pays for some IVF procedures representing roughly 25% of people wishing to obtain it, if they qualify according to guidelines set down by Ministry of Health. The argument that supporting all IVF procedures for couples wishing to take advantage of them is needful to ensure that only single births result because research has determined that people paying on their own implant multiple embryos is a non-issue.
The theory being that Ontario would save money in the long run because couples, not having to pay out of their own pockets would be less likely to try to increase their chances of success by implanting a multiplicity of embryos, resulting in premature babies tending toward increased defects at birth, disabilities and death. All these being more costly to the public health system to deal with, including maternal health in undergoing multiple births.
The solution is simple enough. Educate people of the folly of insisting on stretching opportunities by implanting more than one embryo; teach them that the outcome may be more than they bargained for. And as far as the clinics that exist for the purpose of of providing in vitro fertilization, they should be provincially regulated to make it illegal to implant more than two embryos at any one time in any one person.
As it is, the procedure becomes questionable to the point of unethical when the medical personnel involved agree to implant a greater number than two embryos. Make the prohibition against multiple implantations well understood and supported by specific legislation that would fine the attending physicians and their clinics, and if they err on more than one occasion, withdraw their license to practise in the province.
The argument that OHIP would 'save' more by paying for all IVF procedures at $6,000 a crack, taking into account the relatively low success rate, as opposed to insisting that those not covered under OHIP pay their own way, ending up with the disasters of triplets and quadruplets and associated potential health problems which could themselves be costly to the public purse is not sufficiently persuasive.
Figures produced by the IVF-clinic industry (and it is just that; an industry) indicate that the overall live birth rate per cycle is 26%. Furthermore, 69% of the live births are single babies, while of the remainder 95% of multiple births represent twins. For women under 35 the live birth rate stands at roughly 32%; women 35 - 39, 24%; 40 and over, 12%.
Nature does it better.
While it is true that society in general benefits hugely from a population that raises children in a healthy family environment, those people who find they are unable to conceive naturally and require the assistance of medical science, should be prepared to pay their own way, and if in vitro fertilization is the way they choose, it should be their monetary investment, not that of the entire social system. The health program is set up to care for medical and health conditions, and artificially assisted childbirth is not one of those.
The Province of Ontario through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan pays for some IVF procedures representing roughly 25% of people wishing to obtain it, if they qualify according to guidelines set down by Ministry of Health. The argument that supporting all IVF procedures for couples wishing to take advantage of them is needful to ensure that only single births result because research has determined that people paying on their own implant multiple embryos is a non-issue.
The theory being that Ontario would save money in the long run because couples, not having to pay out of their own pockets would be less likely to try to increase their chances of success by implanting a multiplicity of embryos, resulting in premature babies tending toward increased defects at birth, disabilities and death. All these being more costly to the public health system to deal with, including maternal health in undergoing multiple births.
The solution is simple enough. Educate people of the folly of insisting on stretching opportunities by implanting more than one embryo; teach them that the outcome may be more than they bargained for. And as far as the clinics that exist for the purpose of of providing in vitro fertilization, they should be provincially regulated to make it illegal to implant more than two embryos at any one time in any one person.
As it is, the procedure becomes questionable to the point of unethical when the medical personnel involved agree to implant a greater number than two embryos. Make the prohibition against multiple implantations well understood and supported by specific legislation that would fine the attending physicians and their clinics, and if they err on more than one occasion, withdraw their license to practise in the province.
The argument that OHIP would 'save' more by paying for all IVF procedures at $6,000 a crack, taking into account the relatively low success rate, as opposed to insisting that those not covered under OHIP pay their own way, ending up with the disasters of triplets and quadruplets and associated potential health problems which could themselves be costly to the public purse is not sufficiently persuasive.
Figures produced by the IVF-clinic industry (and it is just that; an industry) indicate that the overall live birth rate per cycle is 26%. Furthermore, 69% of the live births are single babies, while of the remainder 95% of multiple births represent twins. For women under 35 the live birth rate stands at roughly 32%; women 35 - 39, 24%; 40 and over, 12%.
Nature does it better.
Labels: Health, Human Relations, Ontario
posted by Pieface @ 6:14 PM
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