An Olympic champion’s $70,000 IVF nightmare proves why TrumpRx is a game-changer

Kallie Humphries is a three-time Olympic gold medalist who went through multiple rounds of fertility treatments before her son was born. It was the culmination of her lifelong wish to become a mother, a journey that ultimately led to $70,000 in medical expenses, more than three times what she had anticipated it would cost.Humphries’ experience illustrates one of the many painful realities of fertility treatments, one that is especially true for in vitro fertilization: the first attempt often isn’t the last. Success varies substantially with age, diagnosis, and other factors, and many patients ultimately will require multiple cycles. Each new attempt means a new round of invasive procedures and expensive medications.Those drugs are a big part of the final bill, and they are the one part of IVF that has recently become much less expensive. Through TrumpRx and the administration’s drug-pricing agreements, the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that medications used in a standard IVF cycle that once cost more than $5,000 can now be purchased for about $3,000. TrumpRx is built in part on the administration’s overall push for affordability. Beyond price savings, it also changes how people can purchase medications. The traditional insurance system places barriers to care through formulary restrictions and inflates the price of drugs through backroom deals that benefit middlemen at the expense of consumers. TrumpRx allows patients to access lower negotiated cash prices directly. For fertility medications, which many people already pay for out of pocket, it’s a more straightforward model that can make a huge difference in cost.According to the Council of Economic Advisers, only 32% of employer health plans cover fertility medications. That makes the direct-to-consumer model that TrumpRx supports particularly relevant to IVF. For many families, the price that matters is not what an insurer has negotiated or whether a drug is on a formulary, but what they actually have to pay out of pocket. TrumpRx gives those patients access to a more reasonable, negotiated cash price that can make fertility treatments an option, even when their insurance doesn’t provide coverage.Three drugs that are commonly used in fertility treatment and are available through TrumpRx demonstrate the point. Cetrotide is used to prevent premature ovulation; it fell from $316 to $22.50. Ovidrel triggers ovulation; it fell from $251 to $84. The biggest savings come from Gonal-F, one of the primary drugs used for ovarian stimulation during IVF. In a standard treatment cycle, the estimated cost of Gonal-F alone drops from about $3,000 to $1,000. That’s a $2,000 savings on a single drug in a single cycle. Humphries knows how quickly those costs can add up. Her son was born only after she had undergone a fifth IVF cycle and fourth embryo transfer. Her family’s resources had been exhausted early on, and she was only able to continue when a family member stepped in to help. Many people don’t have that kind of support. That is what makes the savings on fertility drugs that TrumpRx offers more consequential than a one-time discount. Saving a few thousand dollars on one treatment cycle doesn’t make IVF inexpensive, and it definitely doesn’t solve every barrier a family struggling with infertility will face, but lowering the underlying price of treatment matters. It matters even more when one treatment cycle becomes two, three, or five.AOC JUST ACCIDENTALLY PROVED CONSERVATIVE FAMILY VALUES RIGHTFor many families, saving on those compounded costs can make the difference between continuing their journey or being forced to give up.For couples who want to start a family, infertility is already a barrier they never expected to face. Making fertility drugs more affordable won’t make the journey easy, but it will give more families the chance to try.Dr. Monique Yohanan, MD, MPH, is director of the Center for Better Health at Independent Women.