In a legislative move that is being hailed as "a major
breakthrough" by Orthodox Jewish activists in New Jersey and
on the national scene, both houses of the New Jersey state
legislature have passed a bill requiring insurance companies
in the state to provide coverage for infertility
treatments.
If the bill now receives Acting Governor Donald T.
DiFrancesco's signature, as expected, New Jersey will join
the ranks of approximately a dozen other states that mandate
insurance coverage for expensive treatments designed to help
childless couples conceive.
The bill, the "Family Building Act," will require health
insurers that provide pregnancy-related benefits to groups
of more than 50 persons to include coverage in their group
policies for medically necessary expenses incurred in the
diagnosis and treatment of infertility for persons aged 45
or younger.
The legislation covers diagnostic procedures, medication and
surgery, as well as modern technological procedures, such as
in-vitro fertilization, the high costs of which place them
beyond the means of many couples desperately seeking to have
children.
And, in an effort to preserve religious liberty, the final
version of the bill also includes a provision that allows
religious organizations to exclude coverage for such
technological procedures from their employees' policies if
providing coverage would be contrary to the organizations'
religious beliefs.
The bill, which was introduced in the New Jersey Assembly by
Assemblymembers Neil M. Cohen and Richard Bagger and in the
Senate by Senators Robert J. Martin and Diane Allen,
benefited from the active involvement of New Jersey Orthodox
Jewish activist Mr. Alan J. Steinberg, executive director of
the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Corporation.
It also benefited from the national advocacy efforts of a
network of well- known askonim including prominent
philanthropist Mr. George Klein, organizations working for
the rights of infertile couples, and Agudath Israel of
America.
Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, Agudath Israel's vice president for
community services, commented on the importance of the bill
to childless couples in Lakewood and other Orthodox
population centers across the Garden State:
"For childless couples in family-oriented communities like
ours, sensitive to the first commandment of the Torah --
'p'ru u'r'vu, be fruitful and multiply' -- this bill
is a shining ray of hope.
"With all the wonderful advances in recent years that help
infertile couples conceive, no couple should be denied the
opportunity to nurture and raise a child simply because they
can't afford the treatments. It is a credit to the members
of the New Jersey legislature that they recognized this
humanitarian reality."
Meanwhile, in New York, legislation designed to accomplish
the same objective is stalled in a battle between the Senate
and the Assembly over certain key details of the measure.
The Orthodox activists remain hopeful that the logjam will
be broken in the weeks ahead, when the legislature returns
to Albany to finalize the state budget and address several
other important matters left unresolved before the summer
recess.
