Err no it's medicare subsidised- at several thousand a pop. In probably one of the few sensible things the previous government did, they wanted to put a cap on it for older women as the older you get the less chance you have of it being successful. Of course there was heaps of stuff in the media at the time about how dare the government not spend health funding on helping older women have babies. I also had an aunt who went through IVF and know that the government paid for a good portion of it.
Compare this to people who adopt from overseas who get no government support until the kid is in country and even then they only get the standard family allowance, no baby bonus or assistance with migration etc. (sorry I couldn't find a link but I read this in a book about international adoption for Australian parents)
This happens when you are a demographer, you remember crazy stuff like this because it affects your work. You also develop a love/hate relationship with Peter Costello!
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Date: 2008-02-14 09:24 pm (UTC)Err no it's medicare subsidised- at several thousand a pop. In probably one of the few sensible things the previous government did, they wanted to put a cap on it for older women as the older you get the less chance you have of it being successful. Of course there was heaps of stuff in the media at the time about how dare the government not spend health funding on helping older women have babies. I also had an aunt who went through IVF and know that the government paid for a good portion of it.
Compare this to people who adopt from overseas who get no government support until the kid is in country and even then they only get the standard family allowance, no baby bonus or assistance with migration etc. (sorry I couldn't find a link but I read this in a book about international adoption for Australian parents)
This happens when you are a demographer, you remember crazy stuff like this because it affects your work. You also develop a love/hate relationship with Peter Costello!