Dear surrogacy community,
We need your help – can you spare 20 minutes to make a change?
Do you want to see changes to Medicare so that there are rebates for procedures related to surrogacy?
Due date is Thursday 15 December.
Many of us work well under pressure so hopefully a 3 day window might be the tight deadline that some of us need!
Thank you in advance if you have already submitted.
There is a current Senate inquiry into universal access to reproductive healthcare that is considering the cost and accessibility of reproductive healthcare. For some background on this inquiry, Stephen Page (surrogacy lawyer) and other community leaders have said the following:
“Those who have become parents through surrogacy will be well aware of the cost. While the Federal government pays over $250 million each year on assisted reproductive services, surrogacy is specifically excluded. Surrogacy costs have been excluded since 1990, when surrogacy was banned in Australia. Times have changed, but this historical anomaly has not. The ballpark figure for becoming parents through surrogacy in most of Australia is about $70,000, higher in Victoria and Western Australia.
This is a call especially for any parents or intended parents through surrogacy who have been financially affected by this exclusion. This exclusion may have cost you just under $5000 per IVF cycle. If you are willing to speak up or complete a short submission using the enclosed template, please remove the highlights and then submit it at this link by 15 December.
Senators need to know the financial impact on parents through surrogacy which other parents to be do not face. Any help that can be given to overturn this exclusion will help other parents – and their children.”
Action you need to take:
1. Use the downloadable submissions template.
2. Edit the template to include your details (removing the highlighted sections) and a few sentences to summarise your story. This is suitable for surrogates to submit as well as IPs/parents.
3. Create an account with My Parliament if this is your first time making a submission.
4. Select Universal access to reproductive healthcare as the inquiry. You can choose for your name and/submission to be kept private if you prefer.
Start at this link
It took me (Anna McKie) about 10 minutes to edit the template and to write a few sentences about my story as a surrogate and why I think the changes should be made. Then about 10 minutes to create an account and upload my submission.
Thank you in advance if you make a submission. 20 minutes of your time and you can say that YOU were part of the change!
