Posted on November 29, 2011 |
This blog post was cross-posted from The Center for Infertility Justice, the official blog of RESOLVE.
Lisa Green’s* insurance benefits book listed “artificial insemination” under covered services. It did not say “but only for married people.” Yet when her doctor recommended artificial insemination, the insurer denied her claim because she was not married.
In its communications to Lisa, the insurer claimed that because the benefits book said “cost of donor sperm” was not covered, a woman using donor sperm (e.g., sperm from anyone other than her spouse) was not entitled to artificial insemination coverage.
Lisa looked again at her benefits book. There was “artificial insemination” under covered services. There was “cost of donor sperm” under services that were not covered. But Lisa did not have any cost for donor sperm, since she was using her life partner’s sperm. And it did not seem like a narrow exclusion for the “cost of donor sperm” should affect her coverage for the artificial insemination procedure itself. Read more »