What price a life?

27 October 2006

The cost of Australian assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment compares favourably with many other Western countries, according to UNSW research.

The average ART treatment cost per live birth is $32,000 in Australia, which is comparable with the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Canada. However, the research found that the Australian figure is around 60 percent of what the treatment costs in the United States ($54,000).

“Funding arrangements for ART differ between countries and that could go some way to explaining the differences in costs,” said UNSW PhD student Georgina Chambers, who is the principle investigator of the research.

The research, which was presented this week at the Fertility Society of Australia’s annual conference, is the first time that international comparisons of ART costs have been made using national registry data.

“Overall, the cost-effectiveness of ART treatment has improved over the last decade, primarily due to improved success rates,” said Chambers, who is based at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Perinatal Statistics Unit (NPSU) at UNSW.

The research also found the average cost of each standard cycle of treatment in Australia is $7,117. This is less than half the cost of a treatment cycle in the United States ($16,318) and less than in Canada ($8,484). The cost of a treatment cycle in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia are also comparable with Australian costs.

The co-authors are Dr Maria Theresa Ho, from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine; Professor Michael Chapman, Head of the School of Women’s and Children’s Health; and Dr Elizabeth Sullivan, Director of the NPSU.