Under the deal announced Friday, the insurer will make coverage of artificial insemination standard for all customers nationally and work to ensure that patients have equal access to more expensive in-vitro fertilization procedures, according to the National Women’s Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in the case.
The insurer will set aside a
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A federal judge still must approve the deal.
The settlement stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed in a federal court in
The couple had insurance through a
Their plan required people who cannot conceive a child naturally to first pay thousands of dollars for cycles of artificial insemination before the insurer would start covering fertility treatments.
The lawsuit noted that heterosexual couples didn’t have the same costs. They just had to attest that no pregnancy had occurred after several months of unprotected sex before they got coverage.
“You never know when you start trying to conceive and you have to do it at the doctor, how long it’s going to take and how much it’s going to cost,” Goidel said. “It was unexpected, to say the least.”
Goidel became pregnant with the couple’s second child after six cycles of artificial insemination — which each cost a few thousand dollars — and one unsuccessful,
Goidel said she’s “thrilled” that
Fertility treatment coverage has grown more common in recent years, especially among employers eager to recruit and retain workers.
The benefits consultant Mercer says 45% of employers with 500 or more workers offered IVF coverage last year. That’s up from 36% in 2021. Many place limits on the number of treatment cycles or set a lifetime maximum for the benefit.
Many insurers also cover artificial insemination as a standard benefit for all policyholders, according to
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This story has been corrected to show the plaintiff’s last name is Goidel, not Goins.
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