Gay male couples who are a part of the city’s governmental workforce, could soon have in vitro fertilization services covered under their health plan.
City lawmakers will hold a hearing Tuesday to discuss a bill that would expand the city’s fertility coverage – which some argue is currently discriminatory against same-sex couples, including gay men.
“This is about equity, it’s about everybody being able to access the same services,” said Queens Councilmember Lynn Schulman, who is sponsoring the legislation. “And the fact that one group can’t access them and another can is not fair.”
The hearing is scheduled to take place at City Hall on Tuesday at 10 a.m.
More than 330,000 people are employed by the city of New York, according to estimates from the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission – and are therefore eligible to have themselves, and their dependents, covered under the city’s health plan. And while the plan does cover multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization, it requires that couples attempt to get pregnant through other means first.
Straight couples, single women and same-sex female couples are able to meet this requirement – but gay male couples are not.
The technicality effectively bars gay men from having IVF services covered. It’s a practice that some – like Corey Briskin – argue is discriminatory.
Briskin, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan who is still on the city health plan, filed a lawsuit alongside his husband against the city earlier this year.
He is scheduled to testify at the Council hearing on Tuesday, his attorney Peter Romer-Friedman told Gothamist.
“Corey is going to tell a compelling story of someone who loves this city and wants to make it the place that it can be,” the attorney said. “He served the city as an assistant district attorney for five years, enforcing the law, and I think he is going to talk about how painful it was to find out that his own rights were being trampled on.”
The bill’s passage would not stop the lawsuit filed by Briskin and his husband. Their attorney said that the lawsuit seeks compensation for the couple, and others like them, that could not access benefits because of the health plan’s current definition of infertility.
“It would be great to take the first place that Chair Schulman’s bill would undertake, but we want to ensure that gay men can get the same benefits in the same way as all under employees under New York City’s health care plan,” Romer-Friedman said.
A singular round of IVF can cost between $15,000 and $30,000 – and can easily multiply in cost if the process requires multiple rounds, Forbes reported last year.
It’s not the first time a bill like this has had a hearing - Schulman said she originally introduced it last legislative session, though it failed to make its way past a hearing because of some legal concerns.
Tuesday’s hearing comes at a time when IVF is being debated nationwide.Senate Republicans recently blocked legislation ensuring women’s rights to IVF services.
Briskin’s lawsuit – coupled with legislation across the country that could restrict IVF procedures in the future – fueled Schulman to reintroduce it, the lawmaker said.
“The fact that we’re hearing it is the first step – and we’ll see what comes out of the hearing,” she said.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
