Trump looks to expand access to IVF through discount, employer coverage

President Donald Trump said Thursday his administration had negotiated a lower price for a major fertility drug and would issue a regulation allowing employers to cover part of employees' fertility coverage.

Pharmaceutical company EMD Serono will offer the popular in vitro fertilization drug Gonal-F at an 84% discount, Libby Horne, the company's senior vice president of U.S. fertility & endocrinology, said in the Oval Office.

The drug will be available on TrumpRX.com, a new website the White House has created to spotlight Trump's work to reduce drug prices, Trump said.

The departments of Labor and Health and Human Services would issue guidance late Thursday, Trump said, to be followed by a regulation creating "a legal pathway for employers to offer fertility benefit packages" similar to vision or dental plans.

Sen. Katie Britt praised

The initiatives "are the boldest and most significant actions ever taken by any president to bring the miracle of life into more American homes," Trump said.

He credited U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican, for bringing the issue to his attention.

"She's the first one that told me about this," he said. "I had not known too much about it, and we worked very rapidly together."

Britt advocated for IVF after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year made the treatment illegal in the state. The state Legislature soon passed a law to ensure IVF remained legal.

At the Oval Office event Thursday, Britt offered high praise for Trump, saying he had prioritized the issue since the first time the pair spoke by phone.

"IVF is what makes the difference for so many families that are facing infertility," she said. "The recommendations today that President Trump has set forth are going to expand IVF coverage to nearly a million more families, and they're going to drive down cost significantly. Mr. President, this is the most pro-IVF thing that any president in the history of the United States of America has done."

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added that Trump was also "addressing the root causes" of infertility through a Make America Healthy Again agenda that seeks to avoid exposure to chemicals.

WARREN CALLS MOVES 'BROKEN PROMISES'

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren minimized the announcements, saying they fell short of providing the free IVF coverage Trump had pledged to work toward.

The Massachusetts Democrat added that private employers would likely not choose to offer fertility coverage and said other cuts to health coverage would more than offset any positives.

"Trump's new genius plan is to rip away Americans' health insurance and gut the CDC's IVF team, then politely ask companies to add IVF coverage out of the goodness of their own hearts — with zero federal investment and no requirement for them to follow through," she wrote on social media. "It's insulting, and yet another one of Trump's broken promises to American families."

Trump, asked about potential opposition from religious conservatives who oppose IVF, said he was unconcerned.

"This is very pro-life," he said. "You can't get more pro-life than this."