With the Medicare rebate for ART coming to an end in January (I think it's confirmed??), will it make a difference to when you do a cycle? We were planning an FET sometime next year, but now are seriously considering whether to do one before the rebate is taken away from us. Are we nuts!? :lol:
So has it affected you the same way? Will there be lots of September bubs next year because everyone is cycling in December?
The rebate isn't being removed completely, they are just capping the extended Medicare Safety Net.
For us, yes it will make a difference. I am doing a FET cycle at the moment and if it is unsuccessful I am probably going to argue for a stim cycle before the end of the year before using up any more of my frozen embryos.
Sorry yep I knew that, I worded it incorrectly ;) With only $550 rebate it virtually is being removed IYKWIM.
we've talked about it a fair bit, and decided to have a big gap to give nature a chance before we go back, if we even will. we probably would have started mid to late next year but i doubt that we will now. if we start to seriously consider it again, we'll be finding out the breakdown of costs first - and may try IUI again - might even see if we can find something like letrazole and see if it works for me where clomid didn't. full ivf will be, for us, too exxy if i want to only work part time rather than full time
In some ways yes, in other ways, no.
It means that we will simply use what frozen embryos we have and then that's it. But that's the position my health places us in anyway - no more stim cycles for me. Not with Sam to care for now.
I know a lot of people are jumping in to go earlier than intended so they can still take advantage of the full rebates, and I have to admit that it is somewhat tempting, but once again, my health makes that impossible.
I just worry that we'll find ourselves in the situation where we just can't afford to use the frozen embryos we have. :(
BW
Yes sadly will make a difference for us, we always wanted 3 kids but I don't think we will do IVF again we will probably just try acupunture and chinese herbs and see how it goes.
Unfortunately it will make a difference for us too. We've been trying for 2yrs for # 2, done 3 x OI, 1 x IUI and have appt next week to move onto IVF. I'm absolutely kicking myself that we didn't do IVF sooner. We'll try with IVF for the remainder of this year but then we'll have to stop.
Originally I was going to do 3 cycles then have a break etc... but that's not an option now. Seems now we're faced with a 'now or never' situation and it bloody sucks! :wall:
Sorry for the rant, been a long day and this really bugs me!!!! :p
It could certainly make a huge difference to us. We have only gotten a total of 3 frozen embryos out of 3 fresh cycles (2, 0, and then 1), so for us it will make a huge difference as we keep needing to do fresh cycles. :(
Hopefully it won't be as bad as previously indicated. Check out the article in The Australian today (there's a link in this post: http://forums.bellybelly.com.au/foru...ml#post1957362). But we'll have to wait and see when the details are made public... :pray: I've never been so eager to read the Hansard transcripts from the Senate!!
Yes it will make a difference for us, as it will everyone Im guessing in some way.
We didnt get any emby's frozen our first IVF July/Aug and so its the whole thing again. I would like to get one more IVF in - perhaps October/November but we are really struggling financially now so we might not even get to do one.
If we can't afford IVF next year - perhaps we will give IUI another try.
GL to all :pray:
It will make life a bit tighter around home, but we don't have any other options as DH had a vasectomy with his XP. We are going to ask about a reversal, but I don't know when too long is too long for it to work.
I'll just have to re think what I spend money on & stop being so material.
Looking good - rebates now proposed to increase from $1000 to $4000...
IVF medicare cataract surgery
Thats such good news!
Would like to know what this means though...
"Her spokeswoman said the restructure would generate some savings including changes to payment for unsuccessful cycles."
What differences in the rebate would they impose for a successful cycle compared to an unsuccessful cycle????????
May have to do a bit more research on this part.
CassI80 - wonder if we get a refund? lol.. thats hilarious. Talking about putting pressure on the Drs to "make it work the 1st time!"
This part confuses me soooo much...
I called our Fertility Clinic to say that we wanted to make an appointment to go through our first ICSI procedure in February 2010... but the patient coordinator started telling me that a lot of people are going to go through the procedure in December rather than putting it off for next year.
I am soooo confused and I don't know what to do? Hubby and I would be more $$$ prepared if we waited til Feb... but it's a bit of a catch 22 because we will end up having to pay more...
The most frustrating bit is not knowing what the final figures will be - and how they'll impact us in the long run.
:(
L x
The information I found 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... I read this 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.)
As someone who has dealt (sometimes badly) with multiple IVF BFN's and is staring down the barrel of IVF#4, I can't help but feel it adds insult to injury. :( But it's also only $200 (ha! I never thought I'd say "only $200") so I guess it could be worse.
My FS told me the good news yesterday at my appointment that the safety net being dropped is looking like it will no longer be an issue and he said in fact we may be less out of pocket. YAY.
:D
Fatboyslim - sounds like your nurse might not have been aware of the potential changes yet.
This possible change by the g'vment certainly made us feel like our hand was being forced even more than the fact we had to do IVF in the first place. I remember it all kicking off in March, just as we were discussing how lucky we were to live somewhere that made it a little more accessible financially due to the rebate.
We did a first cycle and even though got two frosties, when it was unsuccessful decided on a full stim. cycle straight away, which was also unsuccessful but gave me another 2 frosties only.
After many discussions, DH wanted me to make final decision as he said I have to go through it physically, so instead of using our frosties, we've opted for a 3rd stim. cycle, which will be in Oct. It will be our last chance this year...and although our FS told us that it was not getting passed in senate etc, we can't take the risk financially, and seeing as we can scrape the money together now, we'll try.
The way I've read the reports in the media and on the gov'ment website, the latest proposal means that as long as the clinic doesn't charge in excess of 6000 for a basic IVF (without ICSI etc) then people won't be worse off. The thing is, if clinic's change their prices (mine issued a letter months ago, advising of price going up next year - hopefully they'll review that) people will shop around and go to the clinics that charge the 'average' 6000.
More waiting I guess....
Hey all,
Has anyone heard any updates to this at all lately? I questioned MIVF about it but they said they had not been told anything and they woudl let us know when they know.
mitf I asked same question at my clinic last week and they all just say, they've been told to say that nothing changes as per the last letter earlier in year stating the amount it was going to go up by.
as far as i can see, all clinics are cashing in allowing everyone (me included) to do more stim (therefore more expensive) cycles this year...there must've been an influx in the last 3 months)....in the fear of what's gonna happen in Jan '10. whether their prices will come down/go up or remain the same...they won't disclose till they have to.
I'll be thinking with my feet though..they're nice there...but I know from friends that they're nice at other places.
Our FS was pretty upset/disappointed in the whole thing when we saw him last week. He said that the clinic's prices wont increase just that the amount that Medicare gives back will be much less, costing us at least 1k to 2k more for a full stim cycle. He basically said that K Rudd thinks he gets paid too much. Umm, hello! This man is a pioneer in IVF research/development in Australia and is a remarkable doctor who has given so much to so many people. DH and I are lucky to have two little ICSI bubs and although we would like another, it wont be the end of the world for us if our FET isnt successful. But i feel so sad and sorry for all the couples out their starting/continuing their LTTTC journey. Things are going to be very tough and it honestly isnt fair.
Here is the final outcome with the new caps and item numbers
MBS Online - Changes to the Extended Medicare Safety Net in the 2009-10 Budget
Hey Amaryllis,
Thanks for this. At a quick glance it looks like it will be no different or possibly even better off. However I won't beleive it until I see it. It's also so damn hard to understand!
I guess we can also only really compare if we have the same item number this year and then next year and make the claim (with both being either before or after the safety net) so it is a true apples 4 apples comparison.
i am trying to get dh to agree to do next ivf this year as it will effect us in a big way.
the stupid thing is the govenment says they want us to have more children, hence why the baby bonus was put up to $ 5000. the thing is we really want to have a child and some people are only getting pregnant for the govenment money, surely this is rediculous. if they want more babies then why cut the medicare rebate in the first place ?!
sorry for rant
From what I've read I've gotten the vibe that this government would actually like to get rid of the baby bonus but knows it would hurt them too much at the polls. I'm pretty sure the increase to $5000 was set in motion by the previous government (but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
i called repromed the other day - and they told me that had no idea about what the changes were going to be yet - they said that they'd been in lots of meetings and discussions - but nothing had been confirmed...
BUT... the MBS website shows some pretty positive results considering what I heard it could be... do you think that they could be holding off the informaton so that everyone rushes off to do cycles before the new year? that sounds so wrong!
OH... and I was so, so excited to see how many people on this thread got their BFP's in October... congrats :)
L x
Please keep to the topic about the Medicare rebate. Can we also ask that you do not publicly talk about issues with IVF clinics. Thanks.