What does artificial insemination cost?
Costs are always incurred with assisted reproduction. The financial burden ranges from about 100 euros to several thousand euros. In addition, there may be expenses for medication and sample storage.
How much you actually have to pay yourself is made up of the share of the health insurance, state subsidies and tax benefits for artificial insemination.
Costs: Statutory health insurance
Important requirements for cost sharing are:
- clear medical indication
- detailed medical consultation
- minimum age of both spouses: 25 years
- Upper age limit: women 40, men 50 years of age
- Fertilization only with own sperm cells
- AIDS test
- Medical confirmation of success and treatment plan for artificial insemination
The costs for cryopreservation of egg or sperm cells and subsequent embryo transfer are not paid by the GKVs.
Costs: Private health insurance
If you have private health insurance, you will need to check your contract to see what the individual requirements for cost coverage are. Basically, there must be a medically confirmed chance of success as well as a reproductive medical condition relevant to the unfulfilled desire to have children. Accordingly, fertile lesbian couples, for example, have no chance of having their costs covered for artificial insemination.
In contrast to statutory health insurances, private health insurances do not require any co-payment from insured persons for infertility treatment – they generally cover all costs of artificial insemination.
Costs: State subsidies depending on place of residence
- Bavaria
- Brandenburg
- Hesse
- North Rhine-Westphalia
- Berlin
- Lower Saxony
- Thuringia
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
- Saxony
- Saxony-Anhalt
Other German states have expressed interest in cooperation, including Rhineland-Palatinate.
For married couples, the co-payment is generally reduced to up to 25 percent for the first to third attempts at artificial insemination. For the fourth attempt, the co-payment drops to up to 50 percent, because health insurance funds generally only cover three attempts.
For unmarried couples, the co-payment is usually reduced by up to 12.5 percent for the first to third attempts and by up to 25 percent for the fourth attempt.
Artificial insemination: Costs tax deductible?
If you have to pay for artificial insemination yourself, it is possible to claim the expenses against tax. IUI, IVF and ICSI are considered medical treatment and are deductible as extraordinary expenses, including medication and travel costs. It does not matter whether the reason for the unfulfilled desire for a child lies with the man or the woman.
Costs for IVF and ICSI
In most cases, several attempts are necessary for a successful pregnancy. For both IVF and ICSI, you can expect the costs to be covered (in full or pro rata) for three attempts. If IVF or ICSI with foreign donor sperm is necessary, the GKVs do not pay for artificial insemination.
Costs for insemination
Artificial insemination: overall societal benefits
Each couple still has to determine individually what artificial insemination will cost.
