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Japan to subsidise IVF costs to avert demographic crisis

Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has pledged to cover expensive fertility treatments with health insurance, but experts warn the change will do little to avert a demographic crisis.

The Guardian reports that Suga, who took office in September, identified depopulation as a major challenge for Japan and repeated his determination to tackle the low birth rate during his first policy speech in parliament.

“To support households that want to have children we will make infertility treatment applicable to insurance,” he said.

Infertility is not officially recognised as a disease in Japan and so treatment has been available only privately. Couples pay several hundred thousand yen – equivalent to thousands of dollars – for a single treatment, with a significant number paying millions of yen over several years for multiple IVF cycles. With health insurance they would pay 30% of all costs.

Despite a series of government initiatives to encourage couples to have bigger families, Japan’s fertility rate stood at 1.36 last year, well below the 2.1 needed to keep the population stable.

Osamu Ishihara, a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Saitama Medical University, welcomed Suga’s plan but doubted it would have much impact. “I’m afraid I don’t think it will work,” he said, citing South Korea where the birth rate has continued to fall to record lows since more infertility treatments were covered by national health insurance in 2017.

 

[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/06/japan-to-help-cover-ivf-costs-in-attempt-to-avert-demographic-crisis"]Full Guardian report[/link]

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