Businesses are talking about it.
People are changing jobs, and even taking on second jobs, in order to access family-building coverage.
Talent is looking for employers that offer benefits like IVF (invitro fertilization), egg freezing, adoption and surrogacy, and they are willing to change jobs to find it.
The Costs of Offering Fertility Benefits to Workers
One in six couples around the world experience fertility issues. In combination with the LGBTQIA+ community and single parents by choice, a large segment of the workforce needs help and support to build their families.
Fertility treatment costs vary based on complexity as well as access to insurance and where the treatment is provided. In the U.S., the cost for IVF can range from $12,000 to $30,000. Most people need more than one cycle of IVF before becoming pregnant.
While that cost may be daunting, offering managed fertility benefits with companies like WIN can actually save employers money. Fertility can be medically complex as well as physically, emotionally and financially draining. Employees who have no coverage are more likely to make treatment decisions that can lead to negative and costly health outcomes.
Services are available that can avert the expense and lost productivity related to ineffective treatment. These benefits also focus on single embryo transfers (transferring one embryo at a time rather than transferring multiple) which can reduce the need for medical care for multiples with a higher likelihood of compromised health, NICU stays, and development issues that can last through age 5 and beyond.
Which Industries Offer the Best Benefits for Families
In the past, the tech industry led the U.S. in the pervasiveness and richness of family-building benefits. Industries such as financial services, professional services and life sciences were close followers. But that has changed. Employers across all industries, sizes and industries are embracing this benefit as a way to support employees and as a way to compete in the market for attracting and retaining talent.
The benefits offered by employers vary significantly and there is a continued trend for employers to offer richer benefits to a wider set of employees. Some employers even offer unlimited benefits (why limit fertility treatment if all other medical care is offered with no limit?).
Why Covering Family-Building Is Critical
As the largest generations have entered the workforce and want to grow and build their families, employers need to meet this demand as a requirement to engage and retain top talent.
According to a Deloitte study, 90% of U.S. CEOs have named diversity, equity and inclusion as a top business priority. Family-building benefits are by definition a DEI solution.
The absence of fertility coverage and family-building benefits creates and perpetuates health inequity and financial inequity for the most underserved populations. To start, women bear the burden of most family-building expenses while often already struggling with a wage gap. This is exacerbated for women of color; Black women struggle with infertility at a rate more than 50% higher than White women and seek care nearly half as often. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community require fertility assistance to have biological children, and, without inclusive coverage, the burden of cost falls only to them. And finally, there is an issue of financial inequity; if an employer does not provide benefits, pay levels may dictate whether individuals are able to obtain the care needed to have children.
Simply put, family-building benefits have become a business imperative.
Shelly MacConnell is chief strategy officer for WIN, a company that offers family-building and family well-being programs for employer-sponsored benefits. She is a family-building-benefit expert; Femtech supporter; and diversity, equity and inclusion advocate.
WIN offers unbiased fertility trained nurse advocates to help guide patients through the process, find the right provider for their unique needs, and help them to pursue the most effective course of treatment while minimizing the chances for multiple births. WIN also offers access to dieticians as well as mental health support for the unique demands and grief that can be associated with any fertility journey.
Did you know that infertility is caused by male factors as often as female factors? According to the CDC, male factors are responsible for about one-third of infertility, female factors for another one third, and one third is either unknown or related to both male and female factors.
