Kin Unit - The government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) halts a program offering fertility treatment.
In 2019, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, which is dark green in color, suspended the funding program for fertility treatments. This happened due to a 70% reduction in funding from the federal government for the current year, as mentioned by a Green party member and Family Minister Josefine Paul to the responsible state committee. She added that the federal government plans to significantly cut back on these subsidies by 2025.
As a result, the federal government will now only provide around 30% of the original funding amount for 2025, which is approximately 650,000 euros for North Rhine-Westphalia. No decisions have been made yet on how to handle this funding reduction. In the past, the funding was shared equally between the state and federal government.
Approximately 1,500 couples who had applied were informed that the funding for fertility treatments was suspended. The program was already in the process of approving applications from 2023, which will still be paid out this year after careful review. The application portal was shut down on December 21 due to a lack of assigned federal funds.
From 2019 to 2023, approximately 28,500 applications for funding were submitted, out of which around 95% were approved. The federal government allocated around 2 million euros annually for this program. From now on, only 1.5 million euros will be allotted each year. This program typically covered fertility treatments for married and unmarried couples with their primary residences in North Rhine-Westphalia for their first four tries at a successful artificial insemination (like IVF or ICSI treatment).
The opposition FDP party criticized this decision. Fertility policy spokesman Marcel Hafke stated, "This policy decision by the Family Minister is a depressing statement on poverty and a hard blow for everyone who needs support in forming a family." He suggested that the subsidies should be adjusted if there isn't enough money available in the short term. This way, those in need could still access treatment, even if the subsidy amounts had to be decreased.
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