The timing of when to have children is a highly personal choice. What’s different today as compared to the past, is how medical and technological advances have eased the process of conceiving and made a more flexible timeline possible. These advances have provided tools to assess your health and fertility, and facilitate conception through such methods as In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
Recently, Singapore also announced the introduction of elective egg freezing, which will allow women to freeze their eggs for non-medical reasons from 2023 onwards.
What’s the catch? These check-ups and procedures all come at a price – and a pretty high one.
Regardless of where you are in terms of planning for a family, acquainting yourself with the costs involved as early as possible can help you make the necessary financial preparations....
https://biospectrumasia.com/opinion/27/20080/how-can-singapore-optimize-chances-of-future-reproductive-success-with-egg-freezing-what-more-should-be-done.html
The high costs of egg freezing may make it unaffordable to many prospective egg freezing patients, particularly younger women with less savings, but at the peak of their fertility. Hence, the Singapore government should consider various financial assistance schemes to help such younger women with optimal egg quality for freezing. In this case, direct government subsidies cannot be justified because elective egg freezing for non-medical reasons is non-essential for sustenance of either health or life. Nevertheless, there are various other options that can be considered. Perhaps, it may be wise to set an even younger age limit for such financial assistance to egg freezing patients, for example 30 years of age. This could serve as an incentive to push and encourage women to freeze their eggs even younger for their own benefit, thus boosting their chances of future reproductive success.
Utilizing Central Provident Fund Medisave for egg freezing
In Singapore, the compulsory pension plan that all public and private sector employees must subscribe to is the Central Provident Fund (CPF), the medical component of which is known as Medisave. At present, CPF Medisave can be utilized to fund IVF treatment of married patients who have trouble conceiving. Perhaps, the government should also consider allowing the utilization of CPF medisave for non-medical egg freezing.
Medical fee subsidy for egg freezing in return for egg donation – Freeze and Share
In some countries such as the USA and UK, Freeze and Share programs, in which the medical fees of egg freezing patients are heavily subsidized in return for donation of some of their eggs, have already been operating for several years. The advantage of such a scheme is that there are no additional costs to government coffers, as subsidies come directly from IVF patients receiving egg donation. Moreover, Freeze and Share programs can also overcome the persistent shortage of egg donors for IVF patients in Singapore.
Government-funded low interest-rate loans for egg freezing patients
Yet another option is for the Singapore government to provide loans to younger women freezing their eggs, with low interest rates equivalent to current government loans for university tuition fees and public housing.
Employer-sponsored egg freezing
Perhaps some companies in Singapore might consider sponsoring elective egg freezing for their female employees as a corporate perk, to attract and retain human capital. Indeed, this is already being practiced by tech giants such as Apple, Google and Facebook within the USA.
Refund of medical fees for donation of unused frozen eggs
The Singapore government can also consider allowing women who donate their unused frozen eggs to be refunded medical fees by recipient IVF patients. In this case, ethical problems associated with undue financial inducements, and commercial egg trading are not applicable, because these women are just being reimbursed medical fees that they had already spent.