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[quote=Anonymous][quote]You guys are being super-sensitive about her opinion. Get over it and good luck with your treatment. I am in the same boat and have no insurance coverage for IVF. I wouldn't dream of bartering. [/quote]
PP 16:06 here. You are mistaking replying to someone's post for being sensitive to it. I didn't request anyone's opinion of what you call "bartering." I think if you read this thread, that opinion was offered without anyone really requesting it, but I was offering the courtesy of a reply.

It's okay for you to think this is "poor form," even though it may surprise you that it is done quite often. Clinics have financial counselors for a reason. If you'd prefer to think that IVF is somehow removed from the realm of business and that simply asking if price considerations are available is hurting your doctor's feelings in some way, that is super-okay with me. I don't quite understand the notion, in a region where there are many IVF clinics competing for the same pool of customers, package deals available, discounts on drugs, etc. etc. But it clearly is worth a certain amount of money to you to say that you've pulled on your big girl panties and to feel righteous about it.

In my case, my "bartering" (this is so funny to me. Like I traded IVF for a chicken and a couple of barrels of grain, as opposed to the thousands I paid. Hilarious!) was the difference between me being able to afford the procedure and not. That was a BIG THING for me to worry about -- I guess I'm more poor than you are. The price break I got was the equivalent of saving a few thousand dollars off a price I had been quoted at another area clinic. Saving that amount kept me quite calm. And in my case, I am just as pregnant as I would have been had I paid thousands more. So, whether some stranger thinks it was poor form and that her way is better, I got my heart's desire. Hope you do, too.

(For others reading this thread who are less interested in impressing people with their big girl panties, I promise you that the sky will not fall on you if you ask the financial counselor at your clinic if there are options available to you, either through reduced doctors' fees or drug discount programs, to make IVF more affordable to you. There is no shame in this. All that the clinic can say is no. But the possibility is that they'll say yes, especially if you're paying out of pocket. And don't be afraid to get price quotes at more than one clinic. There is more flexibility out there than you may be aware of.)[/quote]

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