Quebec to Fund In-Vitro Fertilization,
By Lia Levesque, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - Couples struggling to conceive are about to get financial help from the Quebec government to pay for fertility treatments.
Health Minister Yves Bolduc announced Tuesday the launch of a provincial plan that will cover up to three cycles of in vitro fertilization, starting on Aug. 5.
Bolduc anticipates 3,500 fertilization cycles will be administered this year at a cost of more than $25 million. That figure could reach $63 million by 2013-2014.
"It's good for Quebec because it will increase the birthrate," Bolduc said.
"It's good for health-care services because it will lower neonatal costs. And it's good for parents."
Quebec's plan goes further than a similar one in Manitoba. Starting in October, that province will start offering a tax credit to cover 40 per cent of in vitro costs along with other procedures to a maximum of $8,000 a year.
Bolduc claims the free fertility treatments will eventually fund themselves.
While Quebec's medical community welcomed the plan as a good idea, it also described it as a hastily drawn policy that could further drain Quebec's already scarce health resources.
"I expect that there will be tourism to procreate in Quebec," said Gaetan Barrette, who heads a provincial association of medical specialists.
"Quebec will be the only place in North America where people will have access to this for free. To have access, the only thing you need is a health-insurance card and you can get a health-insurance card after only three months of residence."
He said he wouldn't be surprised if the treatments end up costing the government more than $200 million per year.
Quebec's association of obstetricians and gynecologists questioned whether the health-care system can handle a surge of pregnant women.
According to the association's president, Robert Sabbah, Quebec is already short between 60 and 70 gynecologists.
Denmark has already had to scale back access to a similar program "because of the enormous costs it engendered," Sabbah said.
Bolduc was forced to justify the costs of the fertilization plan at a time when Quebecers are concerned about operating table backlogs and emergency room wait times.
In rolling out the plan, the governing Liberals have fulfilled a promise made during the last election campaign.
The announcement also marks a significant change in longstanding policy for the Liberals.
Bolduc's predecessor, neurosurgeon Philippe Couillard, opposed covering the cost of treatments because he didn't consider infertility an illness.
Birthrates have long been a sensitive issue in Quebec, most famously in the pre-Quiet Revolution period when Quebecers were urged to have large families to keep their culture alive.
That so-called 'Revenge of the Cradles' had come to an end by the end of 1960s, as Quebec underwent an abrupt transformation from its religious, largely rural past where giant families were the norm.
Within a generation such traditions were replaced by a largely secular, increasingly urban Quebec, which had one of the lowest birthrates in the world.
But the latest trend has seen a small-scale baby boom, with an eight per cent jump in 2006, the biggest birthrate hike since 1909. In 2005, there were 1,700 fertility treatments, costing between $10,000 and $20,000 per treatment.
