"We are going to be, under the Trump administration, … paying for that treatment (IVF). … We're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay."
Facing attacks from Democrats that certain anti-abortion laws could also harm reproductive technologies, then-candidate Donald Trump in 2024 proposed having the government cover in vitro fertilization costs or require insurers to do so.
"We are going to be, under the Trump administration … paying for that treatment (in vitro fertilization). … We're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay," Trump said August 2024 during the campaign.
IVF is expensive, costing roughly $15,000 to $30,000 per IVF cycle, with multiple cycles often required to produce a pregnancy. Less than half the states have laws requiring some IVF-related insurance coverage.
Trump took his first step on this issue Feb. 18 when he issued an executive order.
"Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy shall submit to the president a list of policy recommendations on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment," it says.
This order is only a request for ideas on how to make IVF less expensive.
"It's not clear what he's going to do going forward," said Mary Ziegler, a University of California-Davis law professor who specializes in reproductive policy. "That cuts in both directions. You can't praise him for accomplishing something, or criticize him for not doing more. We just don't know yet" what the process started by the order will produce, she said.
We'll continue to track whether the administration puts anything into law. For now, though, Trump has formally started the discussion. For that, this promise rates In the Works.