Vance grilled on high cost of Trump's new IVF plan
- Sen. JD Vance was grilled about how former President Donald Trump would pay for his new plan to make the government or private insurers to cover in vitro fertilization costs.
- Asked if the policy would amount to an expansion of Obamacare, Vance noted that insurers "are forced to cover a whole host of services."
- Trump's IVF embrace comes as voters have grown concerned about women's reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights protected under Roe v. Wade.
Republican presidential running mate Sen. JD Vance offered few specifics when grilled Friday about how former President Donald Trump would pay for his new plan to require the government or private insurers to cover the cost of in vitro fertilization treatments.
"Is this an expansion of Obamacare? Is this a mandate?" CNN anchor John Berman asked the Ohio senator.
"Well, look, I think you have insurance companies that obviously are forced to cover a whole host of services," Vance replied.
"The President explicitly said that he wants insurers to cover additional fertility treatment," he added, blaming Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for high consumer costs more broadly.
Trump had unveiled the IVF policy in broad strokes during a campaign event in Michigan a day earlier.
"I'm announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment," he said.
He later told NBC News that a future Trump administration will be "paying for that treatment," while also adding, "We're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay."
IVF is used in the overwhelming majority of assisted