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NYC Sued for Denying IVF Coverage to Gay Male Couples
Townhall ^ | 05/11/2024 | Madeline Leesman

Posted on 05/11/2024 9:05:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

On Thursday, a gay couple filed a class action lawsuit against New York City because the city’s health insurance plan does not cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) for male couples.

According to NBC News, the lawsuit comes as part of a “yearslong effort” by the gay couple to get the Big Apple to amend its health benefits. In the lawsuit, the couple alleges that the current policies in place are discriminatory.

The gay couple spearheading the lawsuit reportedly plans to utilize IVF and surrogacy to have kids (via NBC News):

Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto said they have been talking about having children since 2014, ahead of their engagement. They planned to use a two-part process: First, they would use IVF, where an egg is combined with a sperm in a lab, and second, they would work with an agency to hire a surrogate who would have the fertilized egg implanted and would carry the baby to term. They planned to have the IVF covered by insurance and planned to pay for the surrogacy out of pocket. 

Briskin took a job as an assistant district attorney at the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan in 2017, and he learned soon after that the city’s health plan doesn’t cover IVF benefits for gay men. Briskin left that job in March 2022, but he is still covered under the city’s plan through a federal law called COBRA, which allows employees to continue to receive health care coverage from their former employer for up to three years if they pay the full premium. 

In April 2022, the couple reportedly filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in an effort to change the city’s health care policy. This did not work out because the city stated that it does not provide IVF benefits to surrogates. 

Reportedly, the city denies IVF benefits to gay men because it requires employees under the health care plan to meet its definition of infertility to qualify. The city’s definition of infertility is the inability to conceive a child through male-female unprotected intercourse in a consecutive 12-month period or through intrauterine insemination, or IUI. Lesbian couples and single women who undergo IUI and do not become pregnant can qualify as infertile.

The gay couple’s lawsuit reportedly argues that the city’s exclusion of gay men from being eligible for IVF benefits violates Title VII, the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment and New York state and New York City human rights laws.

“But gay men, although equally incapable of conceiving a child without IVF, are always denied access to IVF under the City’s healthcare plan,” the complaint states. “By defining ‘infertility’ in this exclusionary manner, single female employees, female employees with male partners, female employees with female partners, and male employees with female partners are always potentially eligible for some IVF benefits under the City’s healthcare plan, but gay male employees—whether individually or with male partners—are never eligible for any IVF benefits.”

Apparently, the gay couple has already received “donated” embryos they are waiting to transfer into a surrogate’s body. The couple expects to pay $100,000 in IVF costs and an additional $165,000 on surrogacy.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: biologydeniers; biologyphobes; biologyphobia; fdrq; gay; healthcare; ivf; malecouple
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We need to quit normalizing insanity.


21 posted on 05/12/2024 6:11:18 AM PDT by StrictConstructionist
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To: SeekAndFind

Interesting. Doesn’t mention what insurance the other fay dude had. Why are they only suing one?
And btw COBRA is usually more expensive than buying from other plans.
This was a set up all along


22 posted on 05/12/2024 6:43:41 AM PDT by RWGinger (FJB)
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To: SeekAndFind

The want a boy so that can engage in sodomy with the baby. This is what homosexuals do. /spit


23 posted on 05/12/2024 8:36:09 AM PDT by Flavious_Maximus (Tony Fauci will be put on death row and die of COVID!)
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To: Secret Agent Man
"Can’t really implant anything in either gay guy."

Well, you could but...it would be gone with the next healthy dump.

24 posted on 05/12/2024 9:43:36 AM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT ELECTION is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: SeekAndFind
health insurance plan does not cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) for male couples.

Exactly where would the doctor place the fertilized egg in a MALE patient?

25 posted on 05/12/2024 9:50:16 AM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: SeekAndFind

Ok, sorry, they would use a surrogate.


26 posted on 05/12/2024 9:50:50 AM PDT by LibertarianLiz
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To: SeekAndFind

If one can produce an egg, they’re good to go! < /sarc >


27 posted on 05/13/2024 1:00:17 PM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH!)
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To: SeekAndFind

And, It’s HOMOSEXUAL, because there’s nothing GAY about it.


28 posted on 05/13/2024 1:01:09 PM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Finish the damned WALL! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH!)
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