ASB's New Ad - IVF
Much has come up since the demise of Goldstein with ASB, but so much fuss has come up with the advent (no pun intended) of their new commercial offering financial assistance to couples or people wanting IVF treatments.
For one they are bloody expensive. Every one knows that. But more than the financial cost there is an emotional toll on those intimately involved. Not only the fact that you have to go through the invasive process (of course depending on the process you go through) but the fact that you have to go through an acceptance that you cannot do this on your own.
In some ways I commend ASB for putting their services out there and offering a package that allows couples to come forward and ask for help. Its not like you have a five figure sum of cash sitting in your back pocket just to try this every day. To give you an idea, one series of drugs my wife had to take over the period of lead up days we did some sums, we had over $5000 of injections and needles and other items in our possession before we had any procedures done. We were fortunate enough to have two procedures publicly funded therefore the financial cost was minimal to us, outside of some supplements and other items that are known to help fertility and related issues.
But in other ways I have to be weary of this as well. Like any loan, you have taken it out, once you have spent the money there is an obligation to pay it back. Regardless of the outcome, positive or negative you have a hefty loan to pay back with interest. If it is positive, you have the loan to pay back and another mouth to feed. If its not successful, you have a double negative, no baby, + a loan + interest and a constant reminder of the failure.
IVF is no guarantee of success. While it is a blessing to have the science available to achieve this goal it is not 100% successful. In this way I think ASB is trying to foster an avenue, that while commendable is still something that I think is not the place of commercial banks in the public domain, but more someone who is up with personal banking and knows their clients.
You can spend $15,000 on one cycle and not be successful, and still have $15,000 + interest to pay. That's a big reminder of something that might have been. It is hard enough going through the emotional process let alone just going through the process.
I wouldn't say people shouldn't take ASB's offer up. But bearing in mind the implications that come with this process and this loan...and I wish them well.
For one they are bloody expensive. Every one knows that. But more than the financial cost there is an emotional toll on those intimately involved. Not only the fact that you have to go through the invasive process (of course depending on the process you go through) but the fact that you have to go through an acceptance that you cannot do this on your own.
In some ways I commend ASB for putting their services out there and offering a package that allows couples to come forward and ask for help. Its not like you have a five figure sum of cash sitting in your back pocket just to try this every day. To give you an idea, one series of drugs my wife had to take over the period of lead up days we did some sums, we had over $5000 of injections and needles and other items in our possession before we had any procedures done. We were fortunate enough to have two procedures publicly funded therefore the financial cost was minimal to us, outside of some supplements and other items that are known to help fertility and related issues.
But in other ways I have to be weary of this as well. Like any loan, you have taken it out, once you have spent the money there is an obligation to pay it back. Regardless of the outcome, positive or negative you have a hefty loan to pay back with interest. If it is positive, you have the loan to pay back and another mouth to feed. If its not successful, you have a double negative, no baby, + a loan + interest and a constant reminder of the failure.
IVF is no guarantee of success. While it is a blessing to have the science available to achieve this goal it is not 100% successful. In this way I think ASB is trying to foster an avenue, that while commendable is still something that I think is not the place of commercial banks in the public domain, but more someone who is up with personal banking and knows their clients.
You can spend $15,000 on one cycle and not be successful, and still have $15,000 + interest to pay. That's a big reminder of something that might have been. It is hard enough going through the emotional process let alone just going through the process.
I wouldn't say people shouldn't take ASB's offer up. But bearing in mind the implications that come with this process and this loan...and I wish them well.
posted by Wiremu Bayliss at
8:40 am
1 Comments:
I am really in favour of the ASB IVF ad. My husband and I have been on the “infertility rollercoaster” for the past 6 years. We qualified for public treatment but that pays for only 2 cycles (each with 30% chance of working).
Neither worked and we went through another 5 IVF cycles, to the tune of $60,000 – a conservative estimate which doesn't include the costs of needing to stop work during cycles, natural therapies etc.
We have spent a huge amount – but this figure doesn't come CLOSE to representing the true “cost” on us as a couple. IVF is incredibly tough physically and emotionally. And for me one of the hardest things of all (apart from, of course, being childless) is that its such a hidden issue. There's a feeling that the wider world doesn't “get” the pain and hardship it causes and the huge impact on your life.
And this is where the ASB ad comes in. It was a very strange but amazing feeling to see something which you live with, pretty much in secret, day in and day out suddenly being broadcast into the millions of homes.
I am as skeptical as the next person when it comes to banks – I know their bottom line is money and I have no doubt that the ads make financial sense and this is why they are doing them. But a lot of businesses make money from infertility (clinics, drug companies etc). Should we be stopping them?
I am absolutely in favour of increasing public funding for fertility treatment (NZ is appalling in terms of this compared to say Australia) but in the meantime I would rather we had more rather than less options available. I also believe the ASB ad, by raising awareness of the issue, will help lend weight to the call for increased funding for treatment.
I know the ad's not perfect. Yes its a shame that the ad shows triplets at the end; this is now an outcome that the clinics are working hard to try to minimise for the health risks involved. I also agree that its a pity the couple's journey to success is so short - this kind of quick success does not represent the reality of most couples going through IVF.
However the positives about this ad – namely that it is bringing some awareness about IVF into the public domain, in my opinion outweigh any of the negatives.
Help sometimes comes in the unlikeliest of places – I never thought I would be thanking a bank for doing something! but I am utterly delighted that the ASB decided to do an ad about IVF. I am hoping we will be able to look back one day and think “this is when it all changed, this is when infertility really started to get talked about and taken seriously as an issue that has enormous impacts on so many people's lives, it was when those bank ads came on TV...
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