Couples battling infertility plead for health insurance coverage in North Dakota
BISMARCK — Rachel Booth and her husband have tried without success for the past three years to have children. Like many couples in that situation, the Booths have turned to fertility treatment. They’ve been through two in vitro fertilization treatment cycles. Both failed. Booth and her husband have exhausted the $20,000 their health insurance provides for fertility treatment. The Fargo couple — she works as a high school teacher and her husband is a police officer — can’t afford the expensive treatment themselves. Booth testified in support of a bill that would mandate coverage for fertility treatment as well as fertility preservation for cancer patients under the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS. Nearly 60,000 current and retired public employees and their dependents are insured through PERS. In North Dakota, before new coverage is mandated for private insurance, it first must be tested through insurance for public employees, so passage could be a s...