As politicians continue to sling mud over health care reform in Washington, Fertility Partnership is taking what I think will be a slightly faster path in an effort to change the system. Our mission is simple: we want to help more couples afford fertility treatments and achieve their dreams of having a baby, especially those who’ve largely been ignored by the medical establishment. Among the most neglected groups – minority ethnicities such as African-Americans and Latinos.
Too many people feel as if fertility care, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), is out of reach. For many, Fertility Partnership is changing that. We are dramatically bringing down the costs – not nickel-and-diming patients – and we’re talking with people who have never before been reached with this message.
Last year, $4.4 billion was spent in the fertility industry, but few minorities accessed these services. Sometimes the block is cultural, sometimes religious, and sometimes it’s a language barrier, but most often it’s just too much money. We don’t have concrete numbers on minorities that are using fertility services, but we do know it’s very limited. It's certainly not helped by the information one finds on the Web. If you look at infertility blogs or the websites for the big fertility clinics nationwide, minorities are virtually non-existent.
Fertility Partnership wants to make high-quality health care affordable. The cost of fertility treatments has come down dramatically, but the savings are not being passed along to patients. There’s no point in having this remarkable technology to help families have babies if the average person can’t afford it, and there’s certainly no point in ignoring large sections of our country’s population who need fertility services.
Fertility Partnership exists to help everyone – no matter what their ethnicity, culture, religion or sexual orientation – begin the family of their dreams. If you belong to a community or religious group that would like to hear more about fertility care in general or specific infertility issues related to your group, please contact our office or email me at esimckes@fertilitypartnership.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I welcome any opportunity to share more and help make fertility care accessible and affordable to all.
