NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, in Lok Sabha, informed that the Centre does not provide financial cover for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), including In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) scheme.
In a written reply, Jadhav said the government is aware that infertility is a significant reproductive health concern affecting a substantial proportion of couples in India.
Congress Lok Sabha MP, Praniti Sushilkumar Shinde, had questioned whether the government has considered including infertility-related services, including OPD consultations, diagnostics, hormone therapy, monitoring and IVF treatment under the AB-PMJAY package.
However, the minister said that the Centre provides the Parsi community, which is facing a sharp decline in its population, “free or subsidised” fertility treatment.
"Jiyo Parsi is a program of the Ministry of Minority Affairs to help India's minority Parsi community to have more-children and reverse its rapid population decline. Through this program, Parsi couples who need help conceiving can receive free or subsidised fertility treatment,” he said.
"A state-specific initiative, Sikkim Vatsalya Yojana, launched in 2022, offers financial aid up to 3 lakhs for IVF treatment for couples facing infertility," he added.
Quoting the WHO Newsletter dated April 4, 2023, the minister said that around 17.5 of adults -roughly 1 in 6, experience infertility.
He quoted some more studies on infertility in India.
A study from central India reported a lower 8.9 per cent prevalence of infertility in a community-based study.
Also, a study in 2020 by Purkayastha et al. compared data from four rounds of NFHS and the results stated that the prevalence of infertility had shown a remarkable increase in 2015-2016, especially in the southern states.
On the financial burden of infertility treatment on families and its impact on out-of-pocket expenditure, the minister said that the Health Technology Assessment India (HTAIn) Resource Hub at the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health recently estimated the costs of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), including In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
“The findings indicate that the average out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) for a single IVF cycle was approximately Rs 1.10 lakh at public hospitals and Rs 2.30 lakh at private hospitals. In addition, the median out-of-pocket expenditure for general infertility care (non-IVF services such as consultations, investigations, medications and monitoring) was estimated at around Rs. 7,340 in public hospitals and Rs. 11,834 in private hospitals," he said.
He further elaborated that the AB PM-JAY provides health coverage of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
The latest Health Benefit Package (HBP 2022) provides cashless healthcare services for 1,961 procedures across 27 medical specialities.
The Centre has introduced the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021 and Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, to regulate assisted reproductive technology clinics, banks and surrogacy clinics, ensuring safe and ethical practices.
