Letter to Mark Butler the Minister for Health & Aged Care
On 8 November 2022, award-winning fertility lawyer and Accredited Family Law Specialist, Stephen Page, wrote a letter to The Honourable Mark Butler MP (Minister for Health & Aged Care) regarding the abolition of the medicare exclusion for surrogacy.
I write to seek the abolition of the current exclusion from Medicare rebate for assisted reproductive services when the service concerns surrogacy.
I have copied in Mr Graham Perrett MP, who has had a longstanding interest in surrogacy matters, and was in 2015-2016 a member of the House of Representatives Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, which conducted an informal and then formal inquiry into surrogacy.
Four Reasons Why the Exclusion Should be Abolished
These are:
- The exclusion is a historical anomaly;
- There will be minimal cost to the Commonwealth in removing the exclusion;
- There is a disproportionate impact on gay couples by having the exclusion in place; and
- The exclusion is counterproductive in that it encourages intended parents to undertake surrogacy overseas.
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