Day 227
Tuesday 8th June 2010
Gestation: 36 weeks, 4 days
One year ago.
A woman takes illicit drugs throughout their pregnancy. Another causes Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in their unborn child because they drink heavily throughout the gestation. A third beats their baby, breaks its bones. The Department of Human Services gets involved, they get them back, and then they do it again.
And they keep on breeding.
Repeat cycle; rinse and spin.
* * * * *
If I’m born with a child with liver disease, requiring a liver transplant, I can get that done. For free. The cost will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Similarly, if my child needs a heart transplant, and things are complex, the ongoing costs can mean that my child very quickly becomes a million dollar baby. Again, all for free. If my child is unfortunate enough to be born with cystic fibrosis, the cost of one of the inhaled medications, Pulmozyme, can cost up to $2000 a month. As long as I can jump through the right hoops, I can get that subsidised by the Government. For my forty years of life. And this is just one of maybe five inhaled medications I will be on.
Yep, you do the maths.
* * * * *
But as of January this year, just six months ago, Kevin Rudd and the Labour Government decided to decrease the repayment of IVF from 80% to 35%. Costs have risen from $900 for the first cycle to $2500. Many couples require repeat cycles before having success. Dependent on the procedure, this can increase out of pocket expenses to $7500 per cycle.
Repeat cycle; rinse and spin.
I see you doing the sums. The costs can add up very quickly. But with success, IVF couples are born with healthy kids. The burden to the health care system evaporates as soon as they get pregnant. The Government has just bought themselves another tax payer.
Compare that to people with chronic ongoing medical issues. Diabetes. Obesity. Chronic obstructive airway disease. Cardiac disease. Would the Government just stop providing hospital beds to these people? Would they just suddenly make them pay for it? Would they suddenly triple the health care costs to this minority?
No. They wouldn’t. It would be political suicide. It would be further evidence of an uncaring Government withdrawing support for those in need.
But we haven’t got a chronic illness that will be with us forever. We need a little help to produce another tax payer.
That’s all.
Suse and I will only need IVF for a year or two, five years at the absolute maximum.
I pay my taxes. I work hard. I contribute to the health system. I’m a doctor for God’s sake. I am the fucking health system.
In return – for once – I need the health system.
But because my wife has a blocked tube, if we want a family, we have to use IVF. We have no choice. So we will pay for the privilege. Don’t get me wrong. We’re relieved that we live in a time that we have this choice. As are all IVF families. A compliant lot, who will do whatever we can to have kids. That’s why we’re any easy target. We’re too busy trying to breed to get politically proactive. Had we done it last year, the costs would have been a third. It’s bad luck, but that’s okay.
That’s okay, I can swallow that.
But if we want IVF we need a Police Check?
Where are the Police Checks on the community at large? Where is there a Police Check on any other person needing health care, any where in the entire system?
Do you need a Police Check to receive health care in jail? Do you need a Police Check to be allowed to continue a pregnancy if you’re an underage parent? Do you need a Police Check to get an organ transplant? Do you need a Police Check to get dialysis? Do you need a Police Check to treat you for HIV or Hepatitis C? Do you need a Police Check to get health care if you’re an Aborigine? Or if you’re a homosexual?
No you fucking don’t.
Because that is what we call DISCRIMINATION.
And discrimination is illegal in this country – last time I looked – although God knows what this Government has been doing while I haven’t been looking.
I get the money bit. I get it. I understand why they’re doing it – they’re just trying to balance the books. And IVF is an easy target. I think it’s wrong, and I think it’s short sighted, but I get it.
But the Police Check?
Now that’s a fucking bee in my bonnet.
The discrimination has begun.
The infertility discrimination has begun.
* * * * *
Having kids, Pre-pregnancy Diaries
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anger, discrimination, ectopic, fallopian tube, infertility, IVF, unfair
Themocracy
Careful what you wish for, careful what energy you put out there, and, as I say to my 5 year old boy – the centre of my universe – don’t get too hung up about what you think is fair.
I found your blog via a Google search for “pulmozyme cost”. Our little boy has CF, and has been diagnosed as needing this life extending enzyme, at $2000 per month. But we have no hoops to jump through. So you do the maths. How does a middle class family with 3 kids find $2000 pm for another 35 years? In the next year alone we’ll pay the equivalent of 3 IVF cycles.
Don’t get too hung up about what you think is fair. As my little boy says to me… “Daddy, sometimes bad things happen so that good things can happen”.
I wish you well on your journey – but lighten up, or you’ll just attract more negative into your life.
Dear Later on Ron,
Firstly, thank you for reading, and thank you for taking the time to write.
I understand your comments, and can see how my opinion could be affronting. The “hoops that are to be jumped through” was referring to the PBS drug subsidy if there is a 10% improvement of FEV1 on Pulmozyme. Are you in Australia? If so, is this not the case with your son?
I apologise if this sounded flippant or callous; the point was not to detract from the merit of any other medical conditions, it was merely making comment on the relative cost of IVF as a prelude to my real gripe – the blanket introduction of a criminal check for anyone undergoing IVF.
I know that the world isn’t fair, I know that there are others who are far less fortunate than I am, I know that my problem is minimal in comparison to many. But my blog is written from the heart – the experience over months and years of our travails and triumphs through this period. If you read on, you’ll see that this particular post – written on a day at the peak of our frustration – was just that, a venting of frustration. You’ll find that the vast majority of the rest of the story tries to see the humour of the whole situation; a view from the driver’s seat of a man, talking about his struggle with infertility. I think you just tuned in on a bad day.
Sorry once again for any offence, it was never intended.