Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Connecticut Insurance Department Commissioner Katharine L. Wade recently announced that new department health insurance guidance will increase access to infertility treatment for women 40 and older.

"We are providing health insurance like never before – we are indeed a national model for how to get residents great access to care and coverage. As a result, the Affordable Care Act is changing lives," Malloy said in a statement.

Infertility treatment may be clinically effective for individuals older than 40, according to a review conducted by the Insurance Department that was set in state statute in 2005. Individuals receiving infertility treatments, an essential health benefit in Connecticut under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), must be healthy and the treatment must be medically necessary to be covered. Male infertility treatment is also covered under the mandate.

The new standards take effect on policies issued or renewed on or after Jan. 1, 2016.

"This new guidance requires private health insurers to remove the age limit of 40 as a condition of coverage for infertility treatments when medically necessary," Wade said in a statement. "Limits to coverage that are discriminatory run counter to the clear intent of the Affordable Care Act and we must ensure that our state laws and guidelines are compliant."