A laboratory technician uses equipment for in vitro fertilization. (Photo from Getty Images)
President Donald Trump said Thursday his administration has negotiated a lower price for a key fertility drug and will issue a regulation allowing employers to cover some of employees’ fertility insurance.
Pharmaceutical company EMD Serono will offer the popular in vitro fertilization drug Gonal-F at an 84% discount, Libby Horne, the company’s senior vice president of U.S. fertility and endocrinology, said in the Oval Office.
The drug will be available on TrumpRX.com, a modern website the White House launched to highlight Trump’s work to lower drug prices, Trump said.
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services would issue guidance tardy Thursday, Trump said, followed by a regulation that would “create a legal path for employers to offer fertility benefit packages” similar to vision or dental insurance plans.
Senator Katie Britt praised
The initiatives “are the boldest and most significant actions any president has ever taken to bring the miracle of life into more American homes,” Trump said.
He thanked U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama, for bringing the issue to his attention.
“She was the first to tell me about it,” he said. “I didn’t know much about it and we worked together very quickly.”
Britt advocated for IVF after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year made the treatment illegal in the state. The state legislature soon passed a law to ensure IVF remained legal.
At Thursday’s Oval Office event, Britt had high praise for Trump, saying he had made the issue a priority since the two’s first phone conversation.
“IVF makes a difference for so many families affected by infertility,” she said. “The recommendations President Trump made today will expand IVF coverage to nearly a million more families and significantly reduce costs. Mr. President, this is the most pro-IVF action any president has taken in the history of the United States of America.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added that Trump is also “addressing the root causes” of infertility through a “Make America Healthy Again” agenda aimed at eliminating chemical exposure.
Warren calls moves ‘broken promises’
Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren minimized the announcements, saying they were unable to provide the free IVF insurance promised by Trump.
The Massachusetts Democrat added that private employers would likely not choose to offer fertility insurance and said other cuts to health insurance would more than offset any positives.
“Trump’s new genius plan is to strip Americans of health insurance and gut the CDC’s IVF team, then politely ask companies to add IVF coverage out of the goodness of their hearts – with no government investment and no commitment to implement it,” she wrote on social media. “It’s offensive and another one of Trump’s broken promises to American families.”
Asked about possible opposition from religious conservatives who oppose IVF, Trump said he wasn’t concerned.
“It’s very pro-life,” he said. “You can’t get more pro-life.”
