President Donald Trump has failed to deliver on one of his splashiest campaign promises, according to a new analysis.
The president promised to make in vitro fertilization free for all Americans – "because we want more babies, to put it nicely," he said – and issued an impotent executive order pledging action on the issue. But the plan he finally rolled out is "a bit of a dud," wrote Slate columnist Jill Filipovic.
"It’s not nothing — it will modestly reduce IVF costs for some families — but it’s unlikely to meaningfully change the 'Do we or don’t we' calculus for most people, and it’s nowhere near his 'free' promise," Filipovic wrote. "It’s not even clear that the proposal will make much of a dent in costs for the families it does help. And it seems virtually guaranteed that the tiny IVF benefit on offer will not, as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator and TV personality Mehmet Oz said, create 'a lot of Trump babies.'"
The administration will request that companies offer IVF benefits to their employees, but there's no mandate, penalties or government subsidies, and they reached an agreement with a single pharmaceutical company to cut the cost of one IVF drug.
"The IVF policy may not be groundbreaking, but it is perfectly Trumpian: a lot of big talk and bravado, without much in the way of substance behind it," Filipovic wrote. "The president and his administration are boasting that this benefit will fuel a Trump baby boom, but there’s no evidence that a single $2,200 drug is all that’s standing in the way of a fertility rate spike. With the IVF price tag being what it is, it’s frankly hard to imagine that this benefit will make the difference between getting IVF or skipping it for more than a tiny number of families, if any at all."
"But as with so much of what Trump does, the result isn’t the point; the performance is," she added. "Making very loud promises allows him to give the impression of taking action, even if he changes his mind or fails to follow through. What Trump says — and voters hear — is 'Trump is the first president to take meaningful action on IVF.'"