Women will have greater choice around IVF services with the NSW Liberals & Nationals Government providing up to a $500 rebate for pre-IVF fertility testing and greater access to lower cost treatments.
\nPremier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Health Brad Hazzard said the $42 million package was only possible because of the Government\u2019s strong economic management.
\n\u201cWe will provide assistance with out-of-pocket medical expenses related to IVF pre-screening which is often an expensive and emotionally challenging experience for women,\u201d Ms Berejiklian said.
\nPre-screening tests can determine whether a woman is likely to experience a positive result through IVF.
\n\u201cWe will also make IVF an option for more women who previously may not have been able to afford it by expanding the number of NSW Government-supported IVF clinics,\u201d Ms Berejiklian added.
\nUnder the plan, the NSW Government will provide lower cost IVF treatments for around 6000 women through services at Royal Prince Alfred, The Royal Hospital for Women and Westmead hospitals.
\nCosts at Government-supported facilities are substantially less than many private facilities, which can charge up to $10,000 per cycle.
\nMr Hazzard said thousands of women would benefit from greater access to lower-cost fertility services in NSW.
\n\u201cNot knowing why you can\u2019t fall pregnant is stressful enough without the added worry of how you are going to manage the ongoing cost of fertility treatment,\u201d Mr Hazzard said.
\n\u201cNeeding to take time off work for treatment creates an even bigger financial burden for women trying to conceive, so our IVF package will offset some of those costs.\u201d
\nPremier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard also announced a partnership with UNSW for the first statewide fertility preservation service for young cancer patients at The Royal Hospital for Women.
\n\u201cUsing cutting edge research, technology and treatment, the service will help young cancer patients across the State have children in the future if their fertility is impacted by chemotherapy and radiotherapy,\u201d Ms Berejiklian said.
\nFelicity McLaren, who has had two babies born through IVF at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital who are now three-years and nine-months-old, welcomed the announcement.
\n\u201cAnything that can relieve some of the cost burden of going through IVF is wonderful \u2013 particularly in the early stages of testing when you don\u2019t even know if you can have a baby,\u201d Ms McLaren said.
\nFertility experts say about one in every 25 Australian babies are born following some form of assisted reproduction support.
\nWomen undergoing IVF fertility testing will be able to claim their rebate through Service NSW. Medicare and private health insurance rebates are also available to couples and singles to subsidise the cost of IVF procedures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Women will have greater choice around IVF services with the NSW Liberals & Nationals Government providing up to a $500 rebate for pre-IVF fertility testing and greater access to lower cost treatments. Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Health Brad Hazzard said the $42 million package was only possible because of the Government\u2019s strong economic … Continue reading “MAKING IVF MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR WOMEN”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}