Parisian pregnancy push

In a Jan. 16 address, Macron said he wanted to prioritize fertility. Part of that effort is making IVF and other forms of medically assisted reproduction more widely available while limiting factors that cause infertility.

“You have to consider that infertility is a disease like others,” Hamamah said, when asked why the French health system covers the costs of IVF.

France is a rare Western country to fully cover the costs of IVF. There are 103 IVF centers across France to serve a population of about 68 million.

By contrast, U.S. health plans, including Medicaid and TRICARE, do not cover infertility treatments. The 2010 health care law does not mandate coverage of infertility services on the health exchanges, but at least eight states mandate coverage of IVF on exchange plans.

Beginning this year, the U.S. federal government expanded IVF benefits for federal workers. Government employees have the option to select a health plan covering up to $25,000 per year for in vitro procedures and up to three artificial inseminations per cycle. But federal health benefits are much more generous than typical employer health plans for nonfederal workers.

“The government supports everything here,” Hamamah said, noting that France first began covering the cost of IVF in 1994. More recently, in 2022, the government extended IVF coverage to LGBTQ couples and single women for the first time.

“The limiting factor in your country is the money,” he added, speaking of the U.S. health care system.

A draft copy of France’s national plan, which is set to be finalized this fall, emphasizes the importance of government investment in IVF, medical research for new fertility treatments as well as research into the causes of infertility.

French feminist pushback

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