Will the city subsidize in vitro procedures?

During a session of the Bolesławiec City Council held on 19 December last year, the head of the Civic Platform councillors' club, Mirosław Sakowski, filed an interpellation concerning subsidies for in vitro procedures from the Municipal Gmina budget. Below, we present its text:

Dear Mr Mayor,
concerned about the demographic development of our city, I am writing to you with a request to launch a healthcare programme in our city covering subsidies for in vitro fertilisation from the municipal gmina budget. Many residents of our city are struggling with infertility. Our city's population is ageing, and fewer and fewer children are being born. I propose reimbursing expenses for couples who can document that they are undergoing unsuccessful infertility treatment.

Launching this programme would be a gesture towards people experiencing infertility.

Our programme could complement the programme being prepared by the Ministry of Health, which is due to come into effect in July 2013.

“I think it is a good idea,” says Stanisław Andrusieczko of the Democratic Left Alliance councillors' club. “I even spoke to Mirosław Sakowski about it; in my opinion, he is right.”

Janina Piestrak-Babijczuk, deputy head of the City Council, has a different opinion. “I am a realist: there is a crisis, and the city simply cannot afford it. We have so many poor children who need support. Choosing whom to help and whom not to help is very difficult. It is almost impossible to divide the funds in a fair way,” argues the deputy chair of the City Council. “First, let us do everything we can to ensure that those who are alive can live as well as possible,” she adds.

During the December council meeting, Mayor Piotr Roman responded to Sakowski's interpellation. “In response to a question concerning funding in vitro fertilisation from the city budget, the mayor said that it was a very expensive undertaking. The city allocates considerable sums to financing a range of preventive healthcare programmes that are very popular among Bolesławiec residents. The city funds prevention of breast diseases in women, tooth decay in children, eyesight disorders in children, and posture and lower-limb defects in preschool children,” Agnieszka Gergont, the City Office spokesperson, told us. “He also drew attention to the Szczecin project subsidising in vitro treatment from the city budget, which raised doubts among councillors and many Szczecin residents because of its legal and ethical aspects—the Szczecin councillors voted to remove consideration of the draft resolution concerning funding for in vitro fertilisation from the municipal budget from the agenda. He noted that so far only Częstochowa has adopted such a resolution.”

As the spokesperson stressed, the mayor also added that it would be worth waiting for the government's decisions and the analysis by the Agency for Health Technology Assessment, because from July 2013 the Ministry of Health planned to launch a programme providing for state-budget funding of in vitro fertilisation. Reimbursement was to be available to couples who had been unsuccessfully treating infertility for a year. Three attempts at in vitro fertilisation were to be funded. The project did not provide for co-financing by local governments.

What do our readers think about this? We invite you to take part in the poll.

(information: ii)