Senator Patty Murray (above) is the Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Last week, she took to the floor of the Senate to fight for veterans and, fortunately, the Senate passed the bill. (The House may not, see "Is an important bill really about to die in the House?") Her office issued the following:
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Murray Press Office
Thursday, December 13, 2012
(202)
224-2834
Murray Bill to Provide Fertility Treatment to Veterans
Passes Senate
Senate takes major step forward
in finally ending the ban on providing In Vitro Fertilization services to
veterans and their families
Passage comes at a time when
more servicemembers are suffering catastrophic injuries to reproductive
organs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S.
Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs’ Committee, passed
her Women Veterans and
Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, through the U.S. Senate by
unanimous consent. Murray’s bill builds upon previous law to improve VA
services for women veterans and veterans with families and ends the ban on
in vitro fertilization (IVF) services at VA to help severely wounded
veterans start families. After passing the Senate, the bill will now move on to
the House of Representatives where Rep. Rick Larsen has introduced a companion
version of the bill (H.R.6527).
Senator Murray made the following
statement after the bill passed the Senate:
“This is a major victory for veterans
and their spouses, and for their dreams of starting a family. This bill will
give veterans that have suffered catastrophic reproductive injuries the ability
to access In Vitro Fertilization without having to pay tens of thousands of
dollars in out-of-pocket costs. It also brings the VA in line with what military
families are offered.
“Providing this service is a
cost of war and part of the commitment we make to care for our servicemembers
and veterans when they return home. I’m hopeful that now that this bill has
passed the Senate without a single objection the House can also move forward and
pass the bill before the end of this year. There is absolutely no reason we
should make these veterans, who have sacrificed so much, wait any longer to be
able to realize their dreams of starting or growing their
families.”
Earlier, today Senator Murray delivered the
following remarks before calling for the Senate to pass the bill by unanimous
consent. During her speech, Tracy Keil, whose story is described in Murray’s
speech watched from the Senate Gallery.
Senator
Murray’s floor remarks:
Thank you, M.
President.
I come to the
floor today to request unanimous consent for S. 3313, the Women Veterans and
Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012, which is unanimously supported by the
Members of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
M. President,
this legislation not only builds upon previous laws to improve VA services for
women veterans and veterans with families --
But it also
brings a new focus to the need for VA to do more to help women veterans and the
spouses of male veterans access assistance for one of the most impactful and
serious wounds of these wars - reproductive and urinary tract
trauma.
As many of you
know, the nature of the current conflict and the use of improvised explosive
devices leaves servicemembers far more susceptible to these injuries.
In fact,
Army data shows that between 2003 and 2011 nearly 2,000 servicemembers
have suffered these battle injuries.
Like so many of
our veterans, these men and women come home looking to return to their lives, to
find employment, and so often to start a family.
Yet what they
find when they go to the VA is that the fertility services available don’t meet
their complex needs.
In fact,
veterans suffering from these injuries find that the VA is specifically barred
from providing more advanced assisted reproduction techniques such as In Vitro
Fertilization – or IVF
They are told
that despite the fact they have made such an extreme sacrifice for our nation we
cannot provide them with the medical services they need to start a family.
Veterans like
Staff Sergeant Matt Keil – and his wife Tracy, who is here with us today.
Staff Sergeant
Keil was shot in the neck while on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq on February 24th 2007,
just 6 weeks after he married the love of his life – Tracy.
The bullet went
through the right side of his neck, hit a major artery, went through his spinal
cord, and exited through his left shoulder blade.
Staff Sergeant
Keil instantly became a quadriplegic.
Doctors informed
Tracy her husband would be on a ventilator for the rest of his life, and would
never move his arms or legs.
Staff Sergeant
Keil eventually defied the odds and found himself off the ventilator and
beginning a long journey of physical rehabilitation.
Around that same
time, Tracy and her husband started exploring the possibilities of starting a
family together.
Having children
was all they could talk about, once they adjusted to their new
normal.
With Staff
Sergeant Keil’s injuries preventing him from having children naturally, Tracy
turned to the VA for assistance and began to explore her options for fertility
treatments.
Feeling defeated
after being told the VA had no such programs in place for her situation, Tracy
and Staff Sergeant Keil decided to pursue IVF through the private sector.
While they were
anxious to begin this chapter of their lives, they were confronted with the
reality that Tricare did not cover any of the costs related to Tracy’s
treatments -- because she did not have fertility issues beyond her husband’s
injury.
Left with no
further options, the Keil’s decided this was important enough to them that they
were willing to pay out-of-pocket – to the tune of almost $32,000 per
round of treatment.
Thankfully, on
November 9, 2010, just after their first round of IVF, Staff Sergeant Keil and
Tracy welcomed their twins Matthew and Faith into the world.
Tracy told me,
“The day we had our children something changed in both
of us. This is exactly what we had always wanted, our dreams had arrived.
“The VA, Congress and the American People have said
countless times that they want to do everything they can to support my husband
or make him feel whole again and this is your chance.
“Having a family is exactly what we needed to feel whole
again. Please help us make these changes so that other families can share in
this experience.”
I have heard
from these severely injured veterans and while the details of these stories
vary, the common thread that runs through them all is that these veterans were
unable to obtain the type of assistance they need.
Some have spent
tens of thousands of dollars in the private sector – like Tracy and her husband
-- to get the advanced reproductive treatments they need to start a family.
Others have
watched their marriages dissolve because the stress of infertility, in
combination with the stresses of readjusting to life after severe injury, drove
their relationship to a breaking point.
Any
servicemember who sustains this type of serious injury deserves so much
more.
The bill I am
here asking to pass today will give VA broad authority to offer advanced
fertility treatments to the most severely wounded veterans, their spouses, or
surrogates.
It also gives VA
the authority to determine how best to offer these benefits.
It reverses this
troubling barrier to care and will bring the VA in line with the military which
provides these services to this same groups of servicemembers.
This is common
sense legislation that we should pass without delay.
In fact, the NY
Times recently ran an editorial on this bill and said,
“In more than a decade of combat
overseas, the military and V.A. have continually had to adjust to the challenges
of new traumas with new treatments, as with the epidemic of brain injuries and
post-traumatic stress. Adapting the V.A. health system to better meet
reproductive-health needs should be part of that response. It is one
compassionate way to fulfill the country’s duty to wounded
veterans.”
They also noted
that even this Congress should be capable of a bipartisan agreement to
pass it.
M. President, I
couldn’t agree more.
And I can’t
think of any reason why all Republicans and Democrats wouldn’t join us today.
This is about
giving veterans who have sacrificed everything -- every option we have to
help them fulfill the simple dream of starting a family.
It says that we
are not turning our back on the catastrophic reproductive wounds that have
become a signature of these wars.
It says to all
those brave men and women that didn’t ask questions when they were put in harm’s
way, that we won’t let politics get in the way of our commitment to you.
M. President, we
can’t let this bill get bogged down in the obstruction that has become typical
of this body.
This is too
important to delay with procedural tactics.
The VA has an
obligation to care for the combat wounded.
That should
include access to the care they need.
And our women
veterans deserve this, our male veterans deserve this, and our military and
veteran families deserve this.
Thank you M.
President.
I’d now like to
offer a unanimous consent request for passage of S. 3313, the Women Veterans and
Other Health Care Improvement Act of 2012.
###
Matt
McAlvanah
Communications
Director
U.S. Senator Patty
Murray
202-224-2834 -
press office
202--224-0228 -
direct
