 I saw this on CNN this weekend.
CNN LIVE TODAY
Inside the NSA; Desperate for Baby
Aired January 25, 2006 - 10:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
((NEWSBREAK)
KAGAN: Desperate to be parents. A lot of couples resorting to a potentially dangerous tactic to get pregnant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
There is a network of people out there that are willing to help you, that have leftover drugs that can sell them to you at a reduced cost.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Black market infertility. It's a CNN exclusive, and it's just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: And now to the difficult topic of infertility. Millions of infertile couples desperate to conceive face some very expensive procedures and drugs. But some who can't afford them are turning to an illegal and potentially dangerous solution.
Randi Kaye has this CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Phillipsburg, New Jersey, I'm in need of Ganal F (ph). I am self paying and don't have a lot of cash left. I need 475 IU. Please help me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Easton, Maryland, I have a 14-day supply of Luprotkit (ph) purchased in the U.S. and stored properly. Buyer pays shipping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I met with them in a parking lot. And gave them the drugs and they gave me the money.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to the underground world of infertility. Web sites, chat rooms, conversations. Here couples desperate to have a baby barter and beg for unused infertility medications. For hundreds, sometimes thousands dollars less than they pay at the pharmacy. It is a dangerous and growing trend in a world where a single treatment can cost $12 to $15,000. And insurance coverage is hard to come by.
"STEPHANIE", BOUGHT INFERTILITY DRUGS ONLINE: This was a necessity for in vitro only. I mean, there's no other reason why I would want to buy drugs off the Internet.
KAYE (voice-over): This woman asked us not to use her real name, so we'll call her Stephanie. Stephanie and her husband, like more than six million other Americans are unable to have a baby. They chose in vitro fertilization, or IVF, in order to have their own child. But there was a problem.
STEPHANIE: IVF was not covered through my insurance at all. No drugs, no procedures, nothing.
KAYE: And there's no guarantee it will work. A couple has a one in five chance of having a baby after a cycle of IVF. In order to find affordable medications, Stephanie, like many others, turned to the Internet.
STEPHANIE: There is a network of people out there that are willing to help you that have leftover drugs that can sell them to you at a reduced cost. Because you have a prescription that your doctor gives you and it's just an alternative way of getting the prescription drugs.
CARMEN CATIZONE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL BOARD OF PHARMACIES: Just because it's a fertility drug which people may think is reasonably safe doesn't make it any different than if they were trading cocaine or trading other products on the Internet. It's still illegal and it's still dangerous.
KAYE: Carmen Catizone is the executive director of the National Board of Pharmacies, which is designed to protect the public health in dealing with pharmaceuticals.
CATIZONE: They could be expired medications, they could have been tampered with, they could be medications that not only cause harm to the mom but could also cause harm to the fetus or the baby that could be born later.
KAYE: But that is a risk many people like this man feel they have to take.
"SCOTT", BOUGHT INFERTILITY DRUGS: If it makes you a criminal, then that's what it has made me.
CATIZONE: We'll call him Scott. He lives in one of 36 states where health insurers are not mandated by law to cover some part of infertility treatments. Without the mandate, neither his or (sic) his wife's insurance will cover the treatments. So just a few weeks ago he found himself in a parking lot of a K-Mart, exchanging an envelope of cash in an insulated cooler for a supply of drugs at a discounted price from a woman we will call Jennifer who had extra medications after IVF was no longer a viable option.
"JENNIFER", SOLD INFERTILITY DRUGS TO SCOTT: I felt like a drug dealer.
SCOTT: We laughed nervously. This was the K-Mart connection, you know. We're passing drugs back and forth through a window. JENNIFER: I didn't make any financial gain off of it. That wasn't my intention. I had medication leftover, so I just thought the best thing to do would be to maybe sell it to somebody else who could use it.
SCOTT: If the health insurance industry paid for the medications and the procedure, there would be absolutely no reason to have to do a deal through a car window.
KAYE: Susan Pisano is spokeswoman for the largest trade association for health plans. Pisano says the decision doesn't fall with the insurance plans directly but rather the employer.
(on camera): Has your group ever recommended that fertility treatments be covered?
SUSAN PISANO, AMERICAN HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS: We believe that the decision about what an employer can afford is an employer decision.
KAYE: So yes or no, has your group ever suggested or recommended that infertility treatments be covered.
PISANO: Our groups believe that whether it's covered by individual employers is that employer's decision.
KAYE: So no?
I don't know about you but I find it hard to believe that employers and insurance will cover things like Viagra, even abortions, so in other words, insurance will help pay for someone to have sex, they'll help pay for someone to actually get rid of a child, but they won't help pay for someone to have a child. That surprises me.
PISANO: What you have is employers cover a combination of things. They cover things where there's evidence that they work to achieve a good health outcome.
KAYE (voice-over): But for people like Jennifer, it's not about good evidence. It's about fulfilling a dream.
JENNIFER: What the intention is about is honorable. It's about getting pregnant and being able to afford to get pregnant.
KAYE: But the drugs may cost couple it is more than cash.
CATIZONE: Unfortunately this trend won't stop and won't decrease until we see a major tragedy where somebody receives medications that are deadly or medications that cause significant harm.
KAYE: It was worth the risk to Stephanie. Using medication she bought on the Internet. Just last month she and her husband gave birth to a baby boy. That's priceless.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
__________________
Ginger
An Officer's Wife
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