Capping Medicare Saftey Net for IVF/ART #2

[~BecD~]

Here's a link we found in the Australian today 4th Sep '09.

link here

hope this works!

wow - thanks for that - cant wait to find out what the compromise is

[AliB]

Looking good - rebates now proposed to increase from $1000 to $4000...

IVF medicare cataract surgery

[juniper76]

Further to AliB's post:

Department of Health & Ageing -Government Finalises Detail on EMSN items and CAPS

[airline]

Girls does this mean that it might actually be ok for all of us in this awful predicament?? My IVF with ICSI cycle cost us roughly $8000...OOP expense was $2400. We received a letter a couple of months ago, stating due to gov'ments intentions OOP would go up to $6400....so does this mean that clinics like mine, will revert back to what they're charging now - in 2010???? I don't want to get my hopes up...but this sounds pretty good huh???

[juniper76]

There's a little bit more info in the Senate Hansard for the proceedings from 9 September:

Hansard - Senate

(I didn't put the link directly to that day's proceedings because it's quite a large PDF. Just click on the date in question or right-click to download the PDF.)

What I read yesterday says they are proposing to increase the base Medicare rebate (ie before the Saftey Net) by $1100 for the first cycle and $900 for all subsequent cycles. In other words, you'll get less back from Medicare if you're not lucky enough to have it work first time. It didn't specify whether that was the first cycle ever or the first cycle each year. Probably ever if I had to guess...

It'd be nice to see some details of the new proposal, but I haven't found any yet...

[buliej]

I haven't been onto bellybelly in ages as I've been flat out with work and some other things, but I just read this: Costs to rise after Medicare cuts pass | The Australian - now it sounds like it's back to the original plan (really bad for IVF-ers). Does anyone know if I am reading this correctly - have the cuts reverted to the original proposal which now sounds like it will pass?

[juniper76]

buliej, the caps are supposed to be higher than originally proposed, but I haven't found any documentation on what they are now. The only info on the MBS website seems to be the original caps from May. If anyone finds them I'd love to know where to look!

[airline]

ok...doing a search online, this is what I'm finding...hope the link works

senate passes IVF rebate limit

ACT obstetric fees 'extremely high': Roxon - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/mi...9-nr-nr155.htm

I notice that nothing is mentioned re. IVF in the last link...which is on the gov'ment website. I was thinking we might actually not be worse off....now??????

[AliB]

It seems to me that what was passed re: IVF was Roxon's amended proposal we discussed last week. That is, if the cycle cost $6000 or less you're no worse off.

[buliej]

Thanks!

[Possums]

thanks everyone...it's very confusing.... so if a cycle is $8000 you are a little worse off?

[AliB]

Better off under $6000, worse off above - that was the Government advice but they have had plenty of criticism from experts with the various claims they've made about 'no disbenefit' for a range of changes.

Suggest you contact your Clinic and ask them to set out the implications of the changes to you for your future cycle. I imagine they've been keeping on top of the changes.

[juniper76]

The problem with their claim of "if you're paying $6000 or less you won't be worse off" is that the claimed that to begin with and the numbers just didn't add up. I'm just not going to have any faith in that claim until I can crunch the numbers myself (or get something in writing from my clinic). I really do hope it's now true...

The other problem is I think they include ALL expenses in that $6000 (ie cycle, anaesthetist, FS, etc), which for us is more like $7000 (just our cycle alone is $6300). I guess we won't be in the "no worse off" category anyway...??

[~BecD~]

Has anyone seen the new list of medicare costings? Like juniper, I am keen to see the exact figures before I breathe a sigh of relief.

[impish73]

They come out in Nov

[Nix76]

Juniper your cycle alone costs seems high! I think you said you are doing IVF with ICSI - I'm at MIVF doing same with ICSI - and so cycle alone (not including once off admin fee to MIVF, EPU associated costs, Synarel & pill) the cycle alone is $5300 - which is claimable thru medicare. The EPU was partially covered thru my private cover, so I think for us, becuase we had reached the safety net we were out of pocket around $1600 for the whole first cycle.

My FET costs thru MIVF are $1675 (could not beleive how much that was) and so I will get 80% back from medicare provided that is this year cos we have reached safety net.

I must read some of your links to try and catch up with what all these changes mean..... is it actually final now tho? Cos if so I will let the dust settle for a week or so then maybe ring MIVF to ask what the impact is - or maybe medicare.

[juniper76]

Nix76, we get 3 bills - the big one for the cycle from the clinic (no, we're not doing ICSI), the one from the anaesthetist (varies, but less than $500) and the one from our FS (just under $200 from memory), then synarel, etc, on top of that... We also pay my PHI hospital excess on admission ($200).

[Venus]

Hi all
Thankyou for all the info posted on these ridiculous medicare changes. As there has been so much uncertainty as to how DH and I will be impacted by these changes (the clinic estimates we will be $2k worseoff from the status of the original bill proposed), we have decided to push ahead with another IVF cycle (no 3) before 1 Jan 2010. This is much sooner that we would have otherwise opted for (given the birth of our 1st child 6 months ago) and has had the sad consequence of my having to give up breastfeeding. However, we have little financial choice as we wish our child to have a sibling and do not know how many more cycles this may take to achieve. I feel for anyone in the same heartbreaking predicament.
Venus