Two Democratic lawmakers are pushing negotiators of a must-pass defense policy bill to include extensive health care coverage for in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments for service members and military families. (Gianna Gronowski/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Two Democratic lawmakers are pushing negotiators of a must-pass defense policy bill to include extensive health care coverage for in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments for service members and military families.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees in a letter this week that troops should have the same level of IVF coverage that will become available next year to lawmakers and civilian federal employees.
“We strongly believe U.S. service members and military families deserve fertility benefit coverage in 2025 that is at least comparable to what members of Congress will receive,” they wrote. “It would be hypocritical for members of Congress to enjoy high-quality fertility benefit coverage next year, right on the heels of denying such IVF coverage to brave Americans willing to defend our country in uniform.”
The health coverage plans available to lawmakers next year include at least three complete egg retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers from those retrievals. IVF involves fertilizing eggs outside the womb and then implanting them.
Tricare, the military’s health care program, now only covers IVF and similar treatments for service members and their families if infertility can be linked to a service-related illness or injury.
Measures in the House and Senate versions of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, an annual defense policy bill, would scrap such conditions for coverage. A compromise bill is under negotiation and will likely be voted on by the end of the year.
Jacobs and Duckworth said they want to see the final bill “merge and harmonize” provisions that will allow all troops and their dependents to get Tricare coverage of fertility treatments.
They also urged negotiators to remove a section in the Senate NDAA that would create a “fertility and adoption demonstration” program and force participants to commit to four additional years of service in exchange for reimbursement of fertility treatment and adoption costs.
Military service and veterans service organizations objected to the measure in their own letter to lawmakers earlier this month and pointed out that no such demands are made of civilian beneficiaries of IVF and other fertility treatments.
“We share the opposition” of the organizations, Jacobs and Duckworth wrote in their letter. The provision “injects controversial and divisive language related to abortion services and embryonic personhood” and falls “woefully short” of providing military families with adequate health coverage, they said.
IVF was thrown into the political spotlight this year after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos in test tubes should be considered children. The controversial decision raised alarm that aspects of IVF could be criminalized.
Democrats in the Senate have twice attempted in recent months to pass legislation that would guarantee federal protections and insurance coverage for IVF but those efforts were blocked by Republicans who argued the treatment is not under threat in most states.
Jacobs and Duckworth have been vocal proponents of safeguarding access to IVF, especially for service members. Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost her legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq, gave birth to two daughters using in vitro fertilization.
Service members are disproportionately affected by infertility and face unique challenges in starting families due to spending their prime reproductive years in hazardous conditions and away from their partners, the lawmakers wrote.
Most beneficiaries of Tricare pay tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs for fertility treatments while frequently changing duty stations and navigating a complicated health care bureaucracy, they said.
“Failing to provide high-quality IVF coverage through Tricare would perpetuate an unfair system that forces military families to confront an impossible and unjust choice between serving their country in uniform or starting a family without the risk of financial ruin,” the lawmakers wrote.
