Fertility Treatment Should Be Covered By OHIP, Report Recommends
Posted August 26, 2009 4:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Fertility treatments should be publicly funded, an expert panel found following a year-long study on infertility and adoption.
The report, titled “Raising Expectations,” suggests that Ontarians are making poor choices when it comes to seeking services to help reproduce, mainly due to the high cost of such services. Some opt for treatments that transfer numerous embryos at once, which is more likely to result in multiple births.
The panel suggests the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) cover three cycles of in-vitro treatments for women under the age of 42, and include infertility clinics in the public system.
“This is just Ontario values. We want to be the best jurisdiction in the world in which to have a family,” notes panel chair David Johnston.
Premier Dalton McGuinty isn’t committing to any funding for in-vitro treatments at this point.
“Costs remain an issue on every front,” he admitted.
In looking at adoption services in the province, the panel recommends having a centralized provincial agency that would oversee all adoptions. The report asserts that barriers within the adoption system have resulted in 9,400 children a year remaining Crown wards while parents wait years to adopt.
The report suggests that by making these changes the province would save money in both the health care system and in the area of child care services.
The full report is available at www.ontario.ca/creatingfamilies.
