The American health insurance system is such garbage. You can have a full-time job, full health insurance, and still not have important health coverage. One glaring example of this is access to IVF. It’s not mandated coverage under the ACA. Most employer-sponsored health insurance plans don’t cover it. And it costs tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
There’s been some cultural movement on this topic lately. More employers are voluntarily offering it to their white-collar employees in a tight labor market. There’s been legislation proposed in Congress to expand access to IVF for federal employees. (But it’s a heck of a long way from ever becoming law.)
What if you’re not a full-time, white collar worker? Or you are, but your employer doesn’t provide IVF coverage?
What a lot of people have been doing in recent years is getting a second, part-time job at an employer that does provide IVF coverage. Even though more companies have been piling on over the past couple years, it’s still pretty rare to find an employer that both offers health insurance to part-time employees and offers IVF coverage.
We’ve dug into the fine print to help you find the companies that make the cut. Hopefully this list grows longer as time goes on and these policies become more popular!
1. Starbucks’ part-time health insurance covers IVF.
Yes, Starbucks will pay for your IVF treatments as a part-time employee! You have to work about 20 hours per week-ish to qualify. Technically, it’s 240 hours over the course of three months before these benefits kick in.
The way you get IVF through Starbucks is through health insurance. The amount you’ll pay for IVF depends on the type of plan you select. But you gotta beware because…
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You might get IVF but no paycheck from Starbucks.
True story. Depending on which health insurance plan you pick, your entire paycheck could end up going towards your health insurance premiums. Some workers even go into debt because the health insurance costs more than they get paid.
There are levels of health insurance, though. The Platinum plan — which is the most likely to eat up your entire paycheck — comes with no deductibles. If you went for a plan that had a higher deductible, like the Silver plan which has a $1,000 deductible for an individual, you might be able to keep a portion of your paycheck. You’ll pay more out of pocket at the fertility clinic, though.
TIP: This may be a problem to varying degrees for any of the employers on our list. But there is abundant documentation of this happening to Starbucks employees in particular.
2. Amazon part-time health insurance covers IVF through Progyny.
To get part-time insurance through Amazon, you have to work at least 20 hours per week. If you want IVF coverage, be sure to select one of the following insurers when the time comes:
- Cigna
- Aetna
- Premera
- Blue Cross
- Kaiser Permanente
Note that if you’re in Hawaii you’ll only be able to get IVF through Kaiser Permanente.
Once you’re on an eligible insurance plan, you’ll be able to access fertility benefits through Amazon’s partnership with Progyny. Progyny specializes in fertility benefits, and partners with fertility clinics in communities across the country. You can check to see if there’s a Progyny-affiliated provider in your area here.
But make sure to apply for a position that won’t impact your fertility.
When people think about getting a part-time job at Amazon,the first thing that usually pops to mind is working in the warehouse. But Amazon’s got so many other options depending on where you live, and you should probably look at anything except warehouse positions.
That’s because the very work you’d be doing in the warehouse is likely to negatively impact your fertility. And if you do conceive, it’s not work you can continue throughout your pregnancy. Amazon warehouse jobs are notoriously physical, and employees are notoriously overworked to the point where it negatively impacts their health — whether they’re trying to conceive or not.
When I did a recent search, I found part-time software developer positions in cities like:
- Seattle
- Arlington (VA)
- San Luis Obispo.
There were also part-time retail associate positions for Amazon Go locations in places like:
- NYC
- Chicago
- San Francisco
So don’t give up on Amazon IVF just because you don’t want to work in a warehouse! There are other options available.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About the Amazon Employee Discount
3. Target recently expanded IVF benefits to part-time employees.
In 2022, Target upgraded their employee benefits package. Part-time employees now have access to health insurance if they work 25 hours/week at the store associate level. Which is great, because Target also partnered with Progyny to offer fertility benefits on most of their health insurance plans.
TIP: If you’re applying for a higher level position, like Store Team Leader, you can get access to Target health insurance by working at least 20 hours/week.
Be sure to pick the right Target health insurance plan.
There’s no way around it: You’re going to pay health insurance premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses up to your annual max. But which plan you chooses matters a lot because the Progyny benefit only comes with some of them.
If you’re working at Target for the health insurance benefit, sit down with HR, call Progyny, and double check all your work before making the final decision on your plan. It’s important to pick the right one — not necessarily the cheapest one.
RELATED: Target Employee Benefits
4. Walmart offers “part-time” employees IVF coverage.
Okay, so get this: The ACA (Obamacare) requires certain standards for full-time employee health insurance when a company has north of 50 employees. If the company doesn’t meet this standard, they get dinged with a fee from the IRS. The ACA defines “full-time” employment as 30 hours or more per week.
But that doesn’t jive with marketing speak at any number of large companies, like Walmart. So Walmart likes to say it offers health insurance to “part-time” employees, but really only those that are working 30 hours or more per week. If they didn’t, they’d get hit with those ACA penalties.
Thirty hours a week is kind of a lot for a part-time job. But if you do have the bandwidth for it, meeting this minimum will get you access to Walmart’s health insurance, which does cover IVF treatment.
TIP: One of the only exceptions to this may be Hawaii, where labor laws require employers to provide health insurance at 20 hours/week.
Walmart’s fertility benefits are run through Kindbody.
Kind of like how Amazon and Target work with Progyny, Walmart works with Kindbody to provide fertility benefits. You’ll want to check if there’s a Kindbody-partner provider near you, but you can only do that online by actually activating your insurance benefit.
You’ve gotta know if you’ll be able to access these services before you go through the rigamarole of getting a whole job for them. So instead of checking online, call Kindbody directly to see if there are any partner fertility clinics in your area. Their number is 1-855-563-2639.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About the Walmart Employee Discount
5. Disney provides employees $75,000 for fertility treatments.
If you’re a Disney employee, you could be eligible for a $75,000 lifetime benefit that covers fertility treatments. Disney works with WINFertility to provide this benefit.
But is there a catch? Of course, there’s a catch.
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You have to work 30 hours/week to qualify for fertility benefits.
Disney operates on the Walmart system. You only get full health insurance if you work 30 hours/week or more, and you only get fertility benefits if you’re on the employer health insurance plan.
(Again, expect an exception to be made in Hawaii if you work 20 hours or more every week.)
TIP: Obviously, a lot of jobs are concentrated around Orlando and Anaheim. But remember that there are Disney stores across the country, and that Disney owns other brands like National Geographic and ABC. That means there are also jobs in DC and pretty much any area that has a news market. There’s a spattering of remote jobs, too. You can search Disney jobs here.
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