Does Your State Offer Reasonable Access To Infertility Treatments?

Suffering from infertility can be one of the hardest things a person or couple faces. It can be really annoying to see your friends and family all over Facebook posting photos of their new babies when you're struggling to start your own family. It can be hard sometimes to find doctors or clinics that are affordable that will help you get your needs met. But a recent report can give you a better picture of where you might want to consider packing up and moving to if you need treatment for infertility.

According to Fox News, a recent report details what states are the most fertility treatment friendly and which ones come up short. RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association released the annual scorecard ranking how easy it is for people to get access to fertility care and support groups. They looked at how many RESOLVE groups a state has, how many fertility doctors set up shop there, and how available insurance is to citizens.

When looking at how insurance factors into a state's score, they were trying to find which states require infertility treatment coverage in their plans. Different regions have varying degrees of what's covered, so generally more coverage and more options means a higher score. The CEO of RESOLVE, Barbara Collura, says the goal isn't to play a game of gotcha with states that have low scores, but to help them find ways to make fertility needs more accessible and find areas of opportunity. They want there to be more discussion between patients and care providers to find how to give infertile people the best chance at access to treatment.

More support groups means that couples and individuals who can't get pregnant or suffer from miscarriages have someone to turn to when things get tough or things just aren't working. Being easily connected to a larger community also means that people find out about new treatments and may even be able to participate in trials that could be the ticket to having a baby. I hope that with work by RESOLVE and access to cheaper insurance every state can get a passing grade in the near future.

Surprisingly, only five states actually got an A on their report card, including Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut. They had the most access to infertility treatment, and are probably good spots for couples or individuals seeking care. Unfortunately, Alaska, Wyoming and New Hampshire got failing scores. The vast majority of states got Bs and Cs, which means while there is a long way to go in making sure more people can get the help they need, we may not be as far gone as I thought.