Government to fully cover costs of fertility treatments

Hungary’s government will provide additional support to make fertility treatments easier and cheaper for Hungarians who want children, state secretary for family and youth affairs Katalin Novák said on Thursday.

From Jan. 1, medication used during fertility treatments which is subsidised at present will be made free of charge, Novák said. Fertility exams will also be made free of charge, and limits on fertility clinic volume will be scrapped, eliminating long waiting periods, she added.

There are about 150,000 infertile couples in Hungary who want to have children, she said. If every couple in Hungary who wanted to have a child could, depopulation would no longer be a problem, she added.

Novák also announced the state’s acquisition of a number of fertility clinics.

A decree published in the latest issue of the official gazette Magyar Közlöny shows the state acquired six fertility treatment companies: the Forgács Institute, Expecting Healthcare, Sterility Healthcare, Kaali Out-patient Gynaecology, Kaali REK Reproduction Centre and Pannon Reproduction Institute.

Joining Novák at the press conference, Dr Géza Nagy Kaali said his seven fertility clinics around the country had helped bring some 30,000 children into the world. As a result of “better financing”, they will now be able to help even more children be born, he added.

Dr Vince Forgács, the director of the Forgács Institute, said the acquisition of the fertility treatment company by the state would not cause any change to the “level of quality” or the “atmosphere” at its clinic.

Source: MTI