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What to know about insurance and taxes
CNBC • • general
Key Points:
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez highlighted the high cost of elective egg freezing, which can range from $10,000 to $20,000 per cycle, with total expenses rising significantly if multiple cycles, storage, and implantation are needed.
- Egg freezing is increasingly common as women delay motherhood, but the procedure remains largely inaccessible due to limited insurance coverage and high out-of-pocket costs, with some cases reaching up to $47,000.
- While employer coverage for elective egg freezing is growing, only about 22% of large employers offer this benefit, often with lifetime caps around $20,000, and most health insurance plans, including Medicaid and ACA marketplace plans, do not cover it.
- Additional costs such as egg storage fees, which can be thousands over several years, and implantation procedures add to the financial burden, and employer-paid benefits for egg freezing may be taxable as income.
- Some states mandate fertility preservation coverage for medical treatments that threaten fertility, but this does not extend to elective egg freezing for personal reasons, which is not tax-deductible.
