On April 24, during National Infertility Awareness Week, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland, D-Tacoma, led the reintroduction of the “Expanding Access to Fertility Care for Servicemembers and Dependents Act.”
The bill would expand TRICARE coverage to make assisted reproductive services, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), available to all active duty service members, including National Guard and reserve members, as well as their dependents — regardless of service-connection requirements, sex, gender, sexual orientation or marital status.
The act has been endorsed by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Modern Military Association of America.
“Answering the call to serve often means making a great number of sacrifices for your country,” Strickland said. “Being able to start a family should not be one of them. This bill removes current barriers in TRICARE and helps ensure that all service members can access the fertility care they deserve to start a family.”
Barbara Collura, president and chief executive officer of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, said the country’s servicemembers deserve access to the full spectrum of medical care to build their families, including in vitro fertilization. Collura said 85 percent of Americans support access to IVF, calling it “one of the most effective medical treatments for those struggling to build their family.”
“Expanding TRICARE coverage to include IVF and fertility care is not just the right thing to do — it’s a critical investment in the health and wellbeing of military families,” Collura said. “RESOLVE stands strongly in support of this long-overdue change, and we urge Congress to act swiftly to ensure that no one who serves our country is denied the chance to become a parent.”
Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer for ASRM, thanked Strickland, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rep. Mark Takano and Rep. Ayanna Pressley for “calling attention to the fact that current Department of Defense (DOD) policy — which limits TRICARE coverage for fertility treatments to only service members with a service-connected illness or injury — fails to provide our military families with adequate access to care.”
“It’s about time we address this shortcoming so that our brave men and women in uniform do not have to juggle the out-of-pocket costs for treatment with their service, end their military careers to access health care, or forego their dreams of having a family,” Tipton said.
"The ‘Expanding Access to Fertility Care for Servicemembers and Dependents Act’ is a critical piece of legislation,” said Karla Torres, senior human rights counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights. “By removing legal barriers that currently exclude from insurance coverage servicemembers whose infertility is not directly service-related, and safeguarding against discrimination in coverage of this care, the Act gets us closer to ensuring that all servicemembers and their dependents can have equitable and non-discriminatory access to the fertility health care they need to build their families."
Read the full bill text at https://tinyurl.com/22w48m78.