Gay couple files first-of-its-kind class action against NYC for IVF benefits
A gay couple filed a class action lawsuit against New York City alleging the city’s health insurance plan is discriminatory because it doesn’t cover in vitro fertilization, or IVF, for male couples.
A gay couple filed a first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit against New York City on Thursday alleging that the city’s health insurance plan is discriminatory because it doesn’t cover in vitro fertilization, or IVF, for male couples.
The lawsuit is the latest development in what has become a yearslong effort by the couple to get the city to change its IVF benefits, which the couple argues makes accommodations for heterosexual and lesbian couples, and for single women.
Corey Briskin and Nicholas Maggipinto said they have been talking about having children since 2014, ahead of their engagement. They planned to use a two-part process: First, they would use IVF, where an egg is combined with a sperm in a lab, and second, they would work with an agency to hire a surrogate who would have the fertilized egg implanted and would carry the baby to term. They planned to have the IVF covered by insurance and planned to pay for the surrogacy out of pocket.
Briskin took a job as an assistant district attorney at the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan in 2017, and he learned soon after that the city’s health plan doesn’t cover IVF benefits for gay men. Briskin left that job in March 2022, but he is still covered under the city’s plan through a federal law called COBRA, which allows employees to continue to receive health care coverage from their former employer for up to three years if they pay the full premium.
The couple filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April 2022 and hoped that it would encourage the city to change its policy. However, that didn’t happen.
Rating: 5