Opinion | Virginia pioneered in vitro fertilization 40 years ago. It's overdue for insurance to cover it. – The Washington Post

Leigh Nusbaum, a lifelong Virginian, is a former chief of staff to Virginia Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax). She was the 588th baby born through the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine’s in vitro fertilization program.
On Sept. 3, I turn 32. In my brief time on Earth, I’ve worked on the campaigns of senators, governors and lieutenant governors. I’ve run two political action committees and served as chief of staff to the then-minority leader (now speaker) of the Virginia House of Delegates. I don’t like rattling off my résumé, but I figured it is a good way to introduce myself. None of this would have been possible, however, without the work of the brilliant doctors who pioneered in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Without IVF, I wouldn’t exist.
Starting 35 years ago, my mother began infertility treatments. My parents were fortunate that they had connections, as my lawyer grandfather worked closely with Howard and Georgeanna Jones, the brilliant married couple who pioneered IVF in the United States right here in Virginia, at Norfolk’s Eastern Virginia Medical School.
To combat the stigma around Jones’s 1979 launch of their EVMS IVF program, my grandfather founded Virginians Organized for Informed Community Expression, a nonprofit that promoted public education about IVF and other infertility treatments. Being exposed to the facts of IVF gave my parents confidence in this procedure, and, thus, my mother became a patient of Georgeanna Jones.
My parents were also lucky that they had the means to afford IVF. Even in the 1980s, their several rounds of IVF cost more than $30,000. That’s not adjusting for inflation.
I resulted from my parents’ second try.
Today, many people don’t have that option. If you adjust for inflation what my parents spent in the late 1980s, $30,000 becomes $65,124. That’s more than half of the median household income (2015-2019) for Fairfax County.
Insurance coverage for IVF would be a game-changer and give many families struggling with infertility the hope they desperately crave. And, right now, we have an opportunity for the Virginia General Assembly to act to make that a reality. It’s not the first time it has had that option.
My parents have a picture of the three of us with then-Gov. L. Doug Wilder (D). I am a year old. My parents and other families lobbied him on why IVF is so important because, in the 1980s and early 1990s, IVF was new and still seen as controversial. Not long after, my dad appeared before the Commission on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits to testify in support of a bill carried by then-Del. Jerrauld Corey Jones (the father of recent attorney general candidate Del. Jerrauld C. “Jay” Jones, a Democrat who represents Norfolk). Despite the commission’s recommendation that insurance coverage for IVF and other infertility treatment be legislatively mandated, the General Assembly took no action.
More than 25 years later, the commission has a new name, the Health Insurance Reform Commission (HIRC). I know it well, because I used to prepare my former boss for its meetings when she was a member.
In 2020 and 2021, Del. Dan Helmer (D-Fairfax) and Del. Mark Keam (D-Fairfax) have proposed legislation to either cover IVF and other assistive reproductive treatments or to study the issue. In 2020, Helmer’s bill was referred to HIRC to be studied but was delayed because of the pandemic. Now that bill and a 2021 study patroned by Helmer are under HIRC’s review. It met Tuesday for an update and will likely meet at least one more time to vote on whether to act on referred legislation.
It makes sense to take a fresh look at the issue. Much has changed since 1990, when IVF was first studied. IVF has become more commonplace. Numerous famous people, including former first lady Michelle Obama, Chrissy Teigen and Amy Schumer, have spoken very publicly about the long and arduous process it takes to undergo IVF.
Not only did they have the means to undergo IVF, but most of them also lived or live in states that have some form of fertility coverage. According to Resolve: the National Infertility Association, “as of April 2021, 19 states have passed fertility insurance coverage laws, 13 of those laws include IVF coverage, and 11 states have fertility preservation laws for iatrogenic (medically-induced) infertility.” Virginia is not among them.
More than 40 years after the Joneses pioneered IVF in the commonwealth, it’s time to put Virginia on that list. Let’s make IVF and expanded infertility insurance coverage a reality in the next General Assembly session.
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