The Biden administration is considering using Obamacare to force some health insurers to cover in-vitro fertilization for gay couples who want children.
The administration would update the Affordable Care Act to change "the definition of infertility often used by insurance plans to determine eligibility for in-vitro fertilization," Bloomberg Law reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines infertility as "not being able to get pregnant (conceive) after one year (or longer) of unprotected sex." Because same-sex couples biologically cannot get pregnant from sex with each other, they do not meet the definition.
The administration is considering changing that definition, which it considers discriminatory. The change would affect Obamacare plans and some group health plans, amounting to 11 percent of insured Americans, Bloomberg found.
The change would provide a gay couple who wants to have children with "a paid fertility procedure designed for heterosexual couples," National Review reported.
Former Health and Human Services director of civil rights Roger Severino blasted the proposed rule change.
"It's absurd to say [the current rule is] discriminatory," Severino told Bloomberg. "Under this flawed logic, two men would be entitled to IVF treatments being administered to a woman because they have chosen to be in a same-sex relationship."