Senate Inquiry Recommends Ending Medicare Surrogacy Exclusions For IVF Treatments

A Senate inquiry recommendation to allow Medicare Rebates for IVF expenses for Surrogacy procedures is good news for prospective parents, including Australian same-sex couples. 

Gay couples and LGBTQI advocates have welcomed the recommendations for equal access to reproductive health care. 

“This is an important first step towards us fulfilling our dream of having a family. However, more change is required to ensure the application of Government rebates are distributed equally and fairly,” said Alex, who along with his partner Tom, has been lobbying for IVF-related expenses to be Medicare rebated. 

The Brisbane-based couple, who have been trying to have a child via surrogacy, told ABC last month that the egg retrieval process costs between $12,000-$16,000. Medicare rebates would mean that half the expenses would be reimbursed. 

“We will now begin the process of lobbying politicians to see the Senate’s recommendation become a reality,” Alex said in a statement. 

Barriers Faced By LGBTQI Couples

The Senate Inquiry into Universal Access to Reproductive Healthcare acknowledged the barriers faced by those wanting to avail of surrogacy, including LGBTQI couples. The committee said that “current practices and standards in the healthcare industry can be unaffirming and exclusionary for LGBTIQA+ people.”

Both Labor and Greens have supported removing the surrogacy exclusions. 

In a statement, Monash IVF welcomed the inquiry as a “step in the right direction” for “equitable and affordable fertility treatments”. 

According to Monash IVF, in recent years, there has been an increase in LGBTQI persons, and single mums coming to its clinics. “Yet our health system does not treat these patients equally. We must do more to support those who require fertility treatment to start their families, regardless of their circumstances.”

LGBTQI Couples Face Discrimination

“Members of the LGBTIQA+ community, single people and those who require a surrogate to start their families currently face discrimination and an unfair financial burden when using assisted reproductive treatments to start their families, making their journey to becoming parents harder than it needs to be,” Monash IVF said. 

“The Medicare rebate should be extended to cover IVF conducted for the purposes of surrogacy; the fact that it does not currently do so is discriminatory and unfair to people who are already facing significant challenges in their journey to have a child,”  Senior Lecturer, Dr Ronli Sifris, Deputy Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law in the Faculty of Law at Monash University, said in a statement.