Karnataka plans to introduce in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) facilities in five government hospitals, including hospitals in Bengaluru and Mangaluru, in a move intended to make fertility treatment more affordable for patients across the state, Health and Family Welfare Minister UT Khader said on Saturday.
Khader announced the proposal while speaking to reporters in Mangaluru. He said an expert and official committee from the Health Department was working on the plan and that the proposal would be finalised shortly. The announcement does not yet constitute an operational launch, and the supplied report does not identify all five hospitals or provide a start date for the facilities.
The estimated cost of setting up each IVF facility is around Rs 5 crore, according to the minister. If implemented across all five hospitals, the proposal would involve an estimated capital outlay of about Rs 25 crore, based on the stated per-facility estimate. The final cost, however, would depend on the proposal approved by the state government.
The planned government facilities are expected to offer IVF treatment at a lower cost than private hospitals. The procedure can cost around Rs 3 lakh in private hospitals, while IVF treatment is covered at Rs 60,000 under Karnataka’s AB-ARK government health insurance scheme, the report said.
The difference between the insurance coverage amount and private treatment costs is central to the state’s affordability argument. Although the AB-ARK scheme covers IVF treatment at the stated rate, the minister said that not many private hospitals were willing to offer the procedure under the scheme. The proposed public facilities are intended to create additional capacity within government hospitals rather than rely only on private providers participating in the insurance programme.
The proposal therefore combines two parts of the state’s healthcare system: the expansion of specialised treatment infrastructure and the implementation of publicly funded health coverage. IVF requires specialised facilities, trained personnel and clinical systems, but the supplied announcement does not provide details on staffing, equipment procurement, referral arrangements or the number of patients the hospitals would be able to treat.
The inclusion of Bengaluru and Mangaluru indicates that the proposed network is expected to cover at least two major urban centres. The report does not specify whether the remaining facilities would be located in other cities or districts, nor does it state how patients would be selected or referred. Those details are expected to become clearer once the Health Department committee completes its proposal.
The announcement also leaves open the operational relationship between the new facilities and the AB-ARK scheme. The minister’s statement establishes that IVF treatment is covered under the scheme at Rs 60,000, but it does not clarify whether patients using the proposed government hospitals would pay the same amount, receive treatment at a lower rate, or be covered through a separate state arrangement.
The immediate next step is the completion of the proposal by the committee of Health Department experts and officials. The state government is expected to finalise the plan after the committee submits its recommendations, including the locations, cost structure and implementation arrangements for the five proposed IVF facilities.
