Administration announces Labor Department rule to let employers offer stand-alone fertility benefits

President Trump announced that the Department of Labor is issuing a rule to create a new, employer-offered fertility benefit available outside workers’ standard health insurance, comparing the option to vision or dental coverage. The president said the step will make coverage available "for care at every step" of the fertility journey and called it a "major help for millions" who had struggled to afford treatments such as IVF.

The president also promoted trumprx.gov, a federal drug-pricing transparency site he credited with reducing costs for fertility medicines. "Since we launched that website just a few months ago, over 19,000 Americans have used those fertility medicines and discounts and saved more than $15,000,000," he said. In the event, Monique Pruitt, introduced by the president as a user of the service, told attendees she had "saved thousands of dollars on my medication."

Administration speakers at the event described the Labor Department rule as a supplemental option employers can offer in addition to health plans, and compared fertility medications’ falling prices to other drug-price actions the administration has pursued. President Trump offered an example, saying one drug commonly used in IVF fell from about $966 to $168. Separately, participants cited Council of Economic Advisors estimates of larger-scale drug-pricing savings associated with most-favored-nation pricing arrangements; administration officials repeated projections ranging from hundreds of billions in savings over a decade.

The announcement did not include text of the Labor Department rule, details about employer participation requirements, or specifications of which services or procedures would be mandated or optional under the new option. Officials at the event said employers would be able to offer the supplemental benefit "much like" vision or dental coverage, and urged people to consult the new sites for details.

Next steps: the Labor Department will publish the rule text and implementation guidance. The administration’s timeline for employer uptake, regulatory details about plan integration, and federal oversight or reporting requirements were not specified at the event.