IVF - How do you afford it?

[Aimz]

I've been looking into the costs of IVF/ICSI as this may be a road we need to travel down (whole other thread!). I was just wondering if people would be willing to share how they came up with the money to go through with the procedures. From my reading I am guessing you need to pay the full amount up front (up to $10K for ICSI and PGD) however you get most of this back through medicare and private health. So how did everyone come up with the initial fee?

Did you save up?

Did you borrow the money?

Did you redraw against your home?

I understand this is a very personal question but I'd like to be able to go back to DH with some experiences from other couples. TIA for your replies.

[JBM]

we did ICSI and it didn't cost us that much. we had some cash saved and medicare are really promt in giving you the money back, out of pocket it cost us about $ 2,500 all up. which wasn't too bad. but we saved up some cash first. hope you can work it out soon .good luck

[Kitt3n]

hun - HUGS!

dont stress about this till you know!

my friends saved up most of it and put it intot heir mortgage as an advance payment, ready to pull out when they can go for it.

[AngelPunks]

when we were looking at it, we were told we only had to pay the amount NOT covered by Medicare / Private Health - so basically the "out of pocket" & that was due the day we started - because of what we needed to do with ICSI that was about $3k. We were told we didn't have to cover everything, even though the invoice was for the full amount, the clinic would deal with Medicare / Private Health and do the claims directly to them on our behalf.

Each clinic has its own proceedures/policies with regard to this, so I'd talk to your clinic to see what they expect.

Also we were told to register for the Medicare Safety Net.

[TaRhLi.]

Hi Amysarah

Best thing to do is get some idea of the costs from the clinc you will be going to. Some of the girls in NSW spend up to $10k for an IVF/ICSI cycle.

Not sure where you are based, but a lot of clinics have extremely different fees schedules.

I'm doing my IVF in Ballarat VIC and my upfront cost for a my first cycle was just over $3k, which we paid for on Credit Card and with the medicare rebate (make sure you are registered for the Safety Net) I think our out of pocket was about $1,200. We have now done our first FET transfer at a cost of $1,060 and once we get our medicare rebate (80% because we over the Safety Net threshold) we will be out of pocket about $250.

Although we elected to go through Ballarat instead on in Melbourne because the Melbourne costs were higher than we have paid.

I think we are fortunate as with both myself & DH working and the time between our 2 cycles 3 months, we were more than able to repay our OOP for our first cycle way before we did the FET and with our OOP now, I would spend more than $250 in a shopping spree, so not much financial hardship there.

Hope you fidn a good clinic that suits your needs and that you are able to afford your journey towards motherhood.

[Nyrad]

Hi Amy,

We increased our mortgage to redraw on the funds which was cheaper than using a higher interest credit card and we would pay back into it with the medicare refunds. It turned out we did 4 cycles (1 fresh, 3 frozen, pregnant on the last fet). If we had tried to save we wouldn't have been able to do the back to back cycles. Once you reach the safety threshold the cost is not too bad either.

This way the cost was off our mind and we could be stressfree (financially) whilst going thru the cycles.

All the best.

[barney]

hey hun best of luk to you in your journey.
we were going through sivf newcastle and it was costing us nearly $7000 but are now going through westmead fertility and were only paying $ 1450 for ivf 0r $1700 for icsi as they are a non profit org
so im not sure were you live but were from nambucca heads on the mid north coast and we travel 13hrs every time cause we dont care it still saves us money ..
as for the saving bit my dh just really works hard and we just save up till we get the $1400 buks and go again
the first though my dh (god love him) had to sell hi much loved boat but had not problem in doing it lol we just needed the money bad..
good luk with your journey at first i was so so worried about the money i was freaking out as i didnt know how we would ever come up with it but we got there and i hope you do to hunny
let us no how you go ok

[{sarah}]

We refinanced the homeloan to cover it. All the costs went onto the credit card, we refinanced then used the money to pay off the credit card.... Got lots of points that month LOL!

[Muppity]

Hi Amy

I am with SIVF. I actually got a letter from them the other day and and they now don't require upfront payment. So it makes saving a whole lot easier. But I am not sure if this is the case with PGD as well (I don't have the letter with me - but I am guessing it would be for everything that they offer)

But in answering your original question. We paid the whole thing (ICSI $9200ish) on our credit card and Medicare tell me that the money will be in my account in the next couple of days so I will be able to pay most of it off using that and then we will pay the rest with savings (about 2500).

Just as an aside - DH is very happy that we get double points any time we spend over $10K in a month so the IVF equals almost exactly that icecream maker I said he couldn't get! (This is me trying to find positives in all this!)

Lets hope that your tests come back negative and all this research has been for nothing for you.

[Aimz]

Thanks so so much girls - I'm getting heaps of different ideas here!

We would be going through Sydney IVF through their Canberra clinic as they are the closest to us (regional NSW). Can anyone tell me more about their fee structure? From their website they say that there is no upfront cost and then they explain the actual cost and out of pocket cost with a 5 day turn around from medicare. I'm guessing this means we would need the full amount up front?

ETA: SNAP Muppity! You just answered my question!!

[Muppity]

Glad to be of service!

My understanding is that they will now send a bill at the end for the difference between what they charge and what medicare gives them. So they will send the bill with my details straight to medicare and they will pay them the appropriate amount (depending on where I am sitting on the safetynet) and then send me a bill for the rest.

On top of what they quote there is a couple of hundred for drugs and then I haven't had the anethesist bill yet but that will be about $400.

As another aside. If you find that you need to go down this path I am with Simone Campbell in Canberra and I can't say enough nice things about her. She is just the most wonderful person. And the girls at the clinic are great with "out of towners" this morning when I was there there were girls from Griffith and Bega and last time I was in there was a girl from Molong (no sense if privacy with those receptionists - but they are a scream)

[{sarah}]

We got the same letter the other day Muppity, with our fee for embryo storage, can't believe it's been over a year already.

[Bengal]

Thanks so so much girls - I'm getting heaps of different ideas here!

We would be going through Sydney IVF through their Canberra clinic as they are the closest to us (regional NSW). Can anyone tell me more about their fee structure? From their website they say that there is no upfront cost and then they explain the actual cost and out of pocket cost with a 5 day turn around from medicare. I'm guessing this means we would need the full amount up front?

ETA: SNAP Muppity! You just answered my question!!

I actually rang Melb IVF accounts dept, and got a run down of the fee structure off the accounts lady, she was fantastic, she spent about 15 mins explaining it all, so I knew what I needed. It may be worth calling your clinic accounts dept, and explain where your at ..

[Muppity]

We got the same letter the other day Muppity, with our fee for embryo storage, can't believe it's been over a year already.

No! That can't be right! Is it really that long. I suppose looking at the photos of Miss J it must be!

Oh yeah Amy - I forgot about the cryo and storage - $600 and something in the first year I think - don't have that with me either.

[Ellie]

We got a credit card with a $10000 limit with no interest for the first 6 months...only used it for IVF expenses. It worked really well. As soon as the medicare check came in it went straight on the card and the gap was never that huge that we hadn't paid it off before the next cycle. DH and I had a deal that we wouldn't start a cycle until the card was cleared...didn't want any stress! After 6 months we closed the account and looked around at other 'special deals' on cards and managed to avoid a heap of interest that way. Worked for us! Good luck

[briggsy's girl]

we had savings from the sale of my house when i moved in with DH - so we used that, then rebanked the refund amount. since that one, we've done some house reno's (which is what the money was initially for) so we spent that money, and just saved like crazy every cycle - thankfully IUI wasn't as much as IVF

[*MRS M*]

hi
we are going though westmead IVF it is 1450.00 we live in qld so we will be doing a heap of travels
we are getting money from hubbys old job as it closed it's doors so that is paying for ours.

sarah

[Janie71]

Hi,

We did pretty much the same thing as Kelly D. Paid up front on C/C and then refunded from medicare and paid the difference off ourselves. We had one IVF/ICSI cycle that cost about $3,800 up front and we ended up out of pocket about $1,200. It just so happened that at the time that this happened I got an unexpected payment from my private health insurer who were combining with another insurance company and basically giving something back to their clients. Would you believe that this ended up being almost exactly $1,200! Strange how things work.

We then did a FET straight away and that cost about $1,200 up front and because we had gone over our safety net, we ended up out of pocket only about $300. Luckily for us, this was when we got our BFP.

It really does depend on what clinic you go to and also what state you are in.

GL.

Janie xxx