"Of course, relative to subsidizing young moms this sort of program has the disadvantage that not all eggs which are frozen are eventually used for IVF. Because we don’t want to pay for frozen eggs that end up unused, we could stipulate that program users will be expected to either pay back half the costs incurred for any eggs that remain unused by the time they’re 50, or else donate those eggs to another mother."
I presume if we can into larger, collective programs for egg-freezing, that the scale would bring costs down, which would take diminish the financial downside.
I think the latter two suggestions would be unnecessary and unhelpful. If we're having them pay for the cost of treatments for unused eggs, that would feel coercive, particularly if they had been hoping to use the eggs and just hadn't found a partner or some other circumstance limited them. (As well, I don't think there are any other publicly funded treatments like that, whereby recipients need to repay the subsidy, at least thinking of the Canadian system?)
Donating the eggs to another mother would also feel uneasy for some; I think that would need to be done on an opt-in basis as well.
A final thought is potentially to provide the cost of egg-freezing treatments to families who do have kids naturally prior to that point, such that they receive some financial benefit as well. (This could be done in a selective way, such that it pays for education or recreation programs for the kids, as opposed to a straight financial grant.)
Fair points - I’m writing a post about the estimated cost of this sort of program per marginal baby and will consider your comment while I do. But even though other programs might not work that way, part of the issue with egg freezing and why women wait so long to do it is that they can’t afford it while they’re young - this would solve that part of the reluctance, and we could have an income or wealth level at which they don’t have to pay it back. I agree some would not be ok with donating their eggs but if they aren’t then I think they should have to buy them back either partially or fully. Finally in terms of a grant for parents who have kids naturally, yes I think that could be some other sort of program but I would support it as well since it would still likely incentivize more fertility at the margin. But for my next post I want to focus only on the cost of an egg freezing program per baby that otherwise wouldn’t have been born, so will leave the cost of other incentive programs like the one you suggested aside.
I don’t think it’s just that. It used to be much harder to get divorced and women in particular faced much steeper economic (and social) consequences. This makes directly comparing to past data difficult. I don’t have stats that separate divorce rates by age of marriage and education but agree it would be good to look at if I can find them. Admittedly, my personal experience which was getting married young, realizing we had different interests and more importantly different goals around lifestyle and children and being divorced at 30 is also going to bias me here.
A few thoughts:
"Of course, relative to subsidizing young moms this sort of program has the disadvantage that not all eggs which are frozen are eventually used for IVF. Because we don’t want to pay for frozen eggs that end up unused, we could stipulate that program users will be expected to either pay back half the costs incurred for any eggs that remain unused by the time they’re 50, or else donate those eggs to another mother."
I presume if we can into larger, collective programs for egg-freezing, that the scale would bring costs down, which would take diminish the financial downside.
I think the latter two suggestions would be unnecessary and unhelpful. If we're having them pay for the cost of treatments for unused eggs, that would feel coercive, particularly if they had been hoping to use the eggs and just hadn't found a partner or some other circumstance limited them. (As well, I don't think there are any other publicly funded treatments like that, whereby recipients need to repay the subsidy, at least thinking of the Canadian system?)
Donating the eggs to another mother would also feel uneasy for some; I think that would need to be done on an opt-in basis as well.
A final thought is potentially to provide the cost of egg-freezing treatments to families who do have kids naturally prior to that point, such that they receive some financial benefit as well. (This could be done in a selective way, such that it pays for education or recreation programs for the kids, as opposed to a straight financial grant.)
Fair points - I’m writing a post about the estimated cost of this sort of program per marginal baby and will consider your comment while I do. But even though other programs might not work that way, part of the issue with egg freezing and why women wait so long to do it is that they can’t afford it while they’re young - this would solve that part of the reluctance, and we could have an income or wealth level at which they don’t have to pay it back. I agree some would not be ok with donating their eggs but if they aren’t then I think they should have to buy them back either partially or fully. Finally in terms of a grant for parents who have kids naturally, yes I think that could be some other sort of program but I would support it as well since it would still likely incentivize more fertility at the margin. But for my next post I want to focus only on the cost of an egg freezing program per baby that otherwise wouldn’t have been born, so will leave the cost of other incentive programs like the one you suggested aside.
Have you heard the latest news out of Alabama regarding In Vitro Fertilization?
I don’t think it’s just that. It used to be much harder to get divorced and women in particular faced much steeper economic (and social) consequences. This makes directly comparing to past data difficult. I don’t have stats that separate divorce rates by age of marriage and education but agree it would be good to look at if I can find them. Admittedly, my personal experience which was getting married young, realizing we had different interests and more importantly different goals around lifestyle and children and being divorced at 30 is also going to bias me here.