Under the current Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS) rules, medical costs for intra-uterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilisation (IVF) can only be reimbursed in case of pathology which de-facto excludes women couples (and single women), who need medical assistance to create a family.

Egalité has been fighting for a truly inclusive health insurance system, reimbursing IUI and IVF without having to demonstrate a pathology, just like it is the case in many EU Member States, in particular, Belgium (where a significant number of the EU institutions staff lives).

The Comité de Gestion de l’Assurance Maladie (CGAM), the inter-institutional joint committee on JSIS, has been working on a revision of JSIS rules. End of 2020, it decided on the principle of a revision of the chapter related to fertility treatments, without waiting for the entire package of rules to be revised.

In March 2022, a big step has been achieved: the CGAM voted unanimously in favour of an opinion proposing new inclusive and generous rules on IUI and IVF!

The draft revised rules not only open reimbursement of IUI and IVF to all JSIS beneficiaries without the need to demonstrate a pathology, but the number of reimbursed attempts is considerable, the age limit is extended and the rules also open reimbursement of sperm or eggs pick-up (for “social freezing” if a woman does not want to have kids yet but wants to keep her “young” eggs, but also for trans people before starting a hormonal treatment).

The CGAM should now send its opinion and draft revised rules to DG HR, which will prepare a decision to modify the JSIS General Implementing Provisions accordingly. We hope that the new rules will be adopted in the coming months