Human Reproduction

Reproduction medicine for all? Aspects of social insurance law. Possibilities and limits of social insurance

Abstract: Compulsory health insurance only covers the costs of reproductive medical treatments under limited conditions. The assumption of costs requires the existence of infertility, which must also have an illness value within the defintions set by social insurance law. Only artificial insemination is covered by the health insurance. The legislator still rejects the assumption of costs for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and the Federal Supreme Court has so far seen no reason to review this. This article examines the question of the extent to which the general public should have to pay for an individual's desire to have children. In the following, the authors therefore take a fundamental look at health insurance law and discusses its application to reproductive medical treatments. The focus is on the interplay between the provisions on reproductive medicine and those of social insurance law. The article provides an overview of the case law of the Federal Supreme Court and addresses the question of how current and future developments and challenges in the field of reproductive medicine could be reflected in social insurance law.