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For Fertility Treatment, Wounded Veterans Have To Foot The Bill
(Thank you, R fundies.)
Midway through Matt Keil's second deployment in Iraq, he came home and married his fiancee, Tracy, in 2007.
He had two weeks R&R; no time for a honeymoon.
Before he went back to war the couple had the sort of conversation unique to newlyweds in the military. "I told her if you get a phone call that I'm injured, I'm probably fine," Matt says. "But if they come to the apartment or to your work in person, then I'm dead."
Six weeks later the news came — a phone call, thankfully. Matt had been shot in the shoulder. It wasn't until Tracy got to Walter Reed Army Medical Center that she got the full story. The sniper's bullet had nicked Matt's spine.
...To have children they'd need help: in vitro fertilization. But IVF is expensive, costing, on average, at least $12,000 per cycle of treatment, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
The Pentagon's health care system for active duty troops covers IVF. The Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans doesn't. By the time the Keils learned about the difference, it was too late.
...Bills to change the law come up periodically, only to be blocked at the last minute, says Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington. "They don't come out and say that directly, but there continues to be a backroom concern about the practice of IVF," Murray says. Murray's bipartisan IVF bill nearly passed last summer.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is staunchly against abortion rights, effectively blocked it. Tillis declined requests for comment, but said at the time that he opposed the bill because other problems at the VA need to be fixed first.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates a change in VA policy to pay for fertility treatment could cost more than $500 million over four years.
Murray says vets should get the same options as active-duty troops. "It's really ridiculous that Congress would deny a widely used medical procedure to our veterans just because of their own ... beliefs," she says.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/17/467073198/for-fertility-treatment-wounded-veterans-have-to-foot-the-bill
He had two weeks R&R; no time for a honeymoon.
Before he went back to war the couple had the sort of conversation unique to newlyweds in the military. "I told her if you get a phone call that I'm injured, I'm probably fine," Matt says. "But if they come to the apartment or to your work in person, then I'm dead."
Six weeks later the news came — a phone call, thankfully. Matt had been shot in the shoulder. It wasn't until Tracy got to Walter Reed Army Medical Center that she got the full story. The sniper's bullet had nicked Matt's spine.
...To have children they'd need help: in vitro fertilization. But IVF is expensive, costing, on average, at least $12,000 per cycle of treatment, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
The Pentagon's health care system for active duty troops covers IVF. The Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans doesn't. By the time the Keils learned about the difference, it was too late.
...Bills to change the law come up periodically, only to be blocked at the last minute, says Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington. "They don't come out and say that directly, but there continues to be a backroom concern about the practice of IVF," Murray says. Murray's bipartisan IVF bill nearly passed last summer.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is staunchly against abortion rights, effectively blocked it. Tillis declined requests for comment, but said at the time that he opposed the bill because other problems at the VA need to be fixed first.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates a change in VA policy to pay for fertility treatment could cost more than $500 million over four years.
Murray says vets should get the same options as active-duty troops. "It's really ridiculous that Congress would deny a widely used medical procedure to our veterans just because of their own ... beliefs," she says.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/17/467073198/for-fertility-treatment-wounded-veterans-have-to-foot-the-bill