COUPLES WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR IVF ET

Background. Many politicians and decision-makers in health care consider assisted reproduction an expensive and exclusive treatment despite the results of in vitro fertilization/embryo transfer (IVF/ET) treatments having improved considerably during the last few years. With the improved results the costs in relation to successful outcome are decreasing. Aim and Methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-benefit of IVF/ET treatments in a group of infertile couples. The benefit was measured as willingness to pay (WTP) for IVF/ET treatment and was related to the cost of IVF/ET. For the calculation of costs, data from one private and one public IVF clinic in Sweden during the period from January 1992 to March 1993 were used. Results and conclusions. The cost analysis showed a direct cost for IVF/ET of pound 3,170 per started treatment and pound 9,410 per delivery. Including the indirect cost, the total cost was pound 3,880 per started IVF/ET treatment and pound 11,490 per delivery. The survey of the WTP showed that the infertile couples gave high economic priority to infertility treatment. A majority of the couples were willing to gay more for a child than the calculated direct cost.