LITTLE ROCK — Rep. Dan Greenberg, R-Little Rock, today withdrew his  bill that would have required insurance companies in Arkansas to stop providing health coverage for in vitro fertilization.

“There’s credible national estimate that the cost of that mandate increases the cost of insurance about 3 to 5 percent nationally,” he said. “I was trying to figure out whether that was true in Arkansas and not just nationally … and it turns out that’s a hard question to answer,” he said.

The lawmaker also said he realized that there is some question as to whether eliminating the mandate would actually reduce overall health costs by 3 percent to 5 percent because of the obligations insurance companies already have to their customers.

“I’m very interested in reducing the cost of healthcare, I’m very uninterested in taking away a benefit that people have come to rely on,” he said.

Arkansas is one of just 13 states that mandate coverage for in vitro fertilization, he said.

Act 779 of 1987 mandated insurance companies include in vitro fertilization under maternity benefits. The new law went into effect in on Jan. 1, 1988, but only for polices written or renewed after that date.

Tags: Legislature

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