Quote from the newspapers :
“Mr Khaw is introducing the subsidy next month for women younger than 40. He said: 'Age was an important criterion because the empirical data are quite clear that although technology has been improving, there comes a time when you can try but...the success rate is really very low.' “
Many Singaporeans married at late 30s nowadays. Therefore the financial assistance for these older couples who have difficulties having babies is crucial, in fact are more critical than the younger ones.
As our life span is longer now (the reason for extending the CPF redemption age), if we could have children at age 40+, we still have at least 25 years to raise them.
Just because a woman is > 40 years old and have lower success rate, and thus not entitled to the IVF subsidy is, on any view, unlikely to be regarded as fair. If the IVF scheme could allow till age of 45, why can't the subsidy do the same?
By extending the IVF subsidies to those women who are > 40 years old, it will definitely help to boost the birth rate further.
We should have fair policies and age discriminations should be avoided when implementing policies. We are also contributing to Singapore's economy as well.
This policy may also further make those women of 30+ years old more difficult in finding their partners.