B.C. faces calls to expand first-ever publicly-funded IVF program

The British Columbia government is facing calls to expand and extend a new program covering the costs of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The program was announced last year, and will pay up to $19,000 for one round of IVF for patients covered under B.C.’s Medical Services Plan.

Anyone undergoing treatment must be between the ages of 18 and 41 and must get their fertility doctor to apply on their behalf.

1:58 B.C. launches IVF funding program

The program, which is income-tested, began accepting its first applicants in June.

It has been a potential game-changer for couples like Paige Leader and Tyler Fik, who feared they might not be able to start the family they’d dreamed of.

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“We started our fertility journey about two years ago,” Leader told Global News.

“After having three chemical miscarriages, we were kind of thinking, OK, there’s something else going on.”

The couple is among thousands of British Columbians who have joined a waitlist for the IVF program.

5:18 Infertility advocate on B.C.’s publicly funded IVF program

The province has earmarked $68 million for the initiative.

But one of the province’s top fertility doctors, who served on the B.C. government expert advisory committee which developed the program, says that likely won’t be enough.

“At our facility at Olive, we’ve been doing submissions for patients, and it looks like we will be very close to meeting the first year’s full amount of funding very soon,” Dr. Niamh Tallon told Global News.

“And there are many, many more people waiting to have an application submitted, and the funding is just not enough.”

What’s more, the program is currently only designed to last for two years, and the province says applications will be reviewed in the order they are received.

“We are number 2,000-something on the list,” Fik said.

“And at if the end of the two years, they’re like, ‘Sorry, we’re done’ … it’s going to be heartbreaking for a lot of people.”

In a statement, B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said the province is “carefully monitoring and evaluating the demand for this program.”

Osborne said it was too early to speak to any possible changes to the program and that the province would have more to say at a later date.

B.C. is delivering the program through Olive Fertility Centre, Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine, and Grace Fertility and Reproductive Medicine.