Mr Beazley asked the Minister for Health and Ageing, in writing, on 1 December 2004:

(1) Are the costs of medical procedures associated with an IVF program currently included in an individual's Medicare Safety Net entitlement; if so (a) what has been the cost to date, and (b) what is the estimated cost for this financial year.

(2) What proportion of births in Australia result from IVF processes.

Mr Abbott (Minister for Health and Ageing) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) Yes - for out patient services. (a) For the period 12 March 2004 to 30 November 2004, $18,405,791 was spent under the Medicare safety net on IVF out patient services. (b) The estimated cost to the safety net on IVF out patient services in the financial year 2004-05 is $36,000,000.

The 2004-05 estimate takes into account the billing practices of IVF providers and the number of registrations for the safety net.

Service utilisation is approximately 8,000 to 9,000 IVF out patient services billed to Medicare per month, with December being typically slightly higher, offset by slightly lower than average utilisation in January. Based on these utilisation rates it is expected that safety net expenditure for IVF services will be about $3.2 million per month. It should be noted that for the early part of the 2004-05 financial year (July and August 2004) registration for the safety net was still occurring, thus expenditure in these months was less than the average of $3.2 million.

(2) Population estimates suggest that babies born following assisted reproductive technology including IVF constitute about 2% of all births in Australia (Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Perinatal Statistics Unit).