An Assembly committee advanced a bill on Jan. 4, 2024, that would require most insurers to cover fertility treatments in New Jersey. Lawmakers have just a few days to get the bill to the finish line, with a new legislative session set to begin next week. (Getty images)
Assembly lawmakers advanced a bill Thursday that would require most health insurers to cover infertility care in New Jersey.
The proposal, which has bipartisan support, would exempt individual and small employer health insurance markets. Covered services would include intrauterine insemination, genetic testing, embryo transfers, and other fertility services recommended by a physician in accordance with American Society for Reproductive Medicine guidelines.
Supporters celebrated the proposal as a win for LGBT couples and single adults who rely on infertility treatments to become parents, as well as anyone who struggles to pay the pricy cost of such care.
Attorney Debra Guston, past president of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, urged members of the Assembly’s appropriations committee to put New Jersey “at the forefront of inclusive and modern fertility coverage” by joining 11 other states, including New York and Delaware, that have laws, or active legislation, to mandate insurance coverage for fertility care.
“I work with clients each and every day who attempt to mortgage their homes, drain their retirement funds, max out their credit cards, and borrow from relatives in order to be able to afford uninsured necessary medical care in order to have a child,” Guston said. “My clients are husbands and wives who have been trying for years to have child, and single women and same-sex couples who have needed medical services to achieve their dreams of parentage.”
John Tomicki of the League of American Families testified against the bill, raising moral concerns about in vitro fertilization and the fate of unused embryos. The bill includes provisions exempting religious employers.
Committee members advanced the bill along party lines, with Republican Assemblymen Brian Bergen, Jay Webber, and Antwan McClellan voting no.
The bill already has passed through several Assembly and Senate committees, but still must be voted on by both full chambers and signed by the governor before it can become law. There’s not much time to do that — both bodies are scheduled to meet just twice more before the current legislative session ends next week. The bill lists for those voting sessions aren’t finalized yet.
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