The New York City Council's LGBTQIA+ Caucus is pushing Mayor Eric Adams to expand in vitro fertilization (IVF) coverage to gay men who work for the city, Politico reported.
Currently, the city's health plan only covers IVF cycles for employees, females and males who have female partners, diagnosed with infertility.
A 2020 state law requires insurance plans to cover three cycles of IVF for people unable to impregnate someone else or to conceive. A single IVF cycle can cost between $15,000 and $30,000, Forbes reported last year.
"As members of the City Council, we strongly believe that the family building benefits should be offered to all employees, and it cannot be conditioned on a definition of heteronormative infertility," the caucus said in a letter to Adams, Politico reported.
"Although the City's discriminatory policy predates this Administration, the current Administration can solve this problem."
Last month, a former New York City assistant district attorney and his husband sued the city, saying it discriminates against gay men by not covering IVF for them, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The proposed class-action lawsuit alleges that the city's policy discriminates against same-sex couples who cannot obtain an infertility diagnosis.
Corey Briskin, the former assistant district attorney who filed the suit with his husband, is scheduled to testify Tuesday morning at a City Council's health committee hearing to discuss a bill that would require the city to cover assisted reproduction services and adoption for municipal employees without a required infertility diagnosis.
"We're hoping that the City Council's great leadership on this issue will rub off on Mayor Adams," Peter Romer-Friedman, Briskin's lawyer, told Politico.
Queens Councilmember Lynn Schulman is sponsoring the legislation.
"This is about equity, it's about everybody being able to access the same services," Schulman said, Gothamist reported. "And the fact that one group can't access them and another can is not fair."
An Adams spokesperson said the city's health plan covers IVF treatments for municipal employees "regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation," though it does not cover costs associated with egg or sperm donation or with surrogacy, Politico reported.
"The Adams administration proudly supports the rights of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers to access the health care they need," spokesperson Liz Garcia said in a statement.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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