Family Building FEHB Fairness Act

Key Points

• The bill creates a federal statutory right to seek and receive IVF, other assisted reproductive technology, and IUI, and it overrides state laws that restrict these treatments beyond accepted medical guidelines. Federal courts, the Attorney General, patients, and providers could all act to enforce this right.
• Most health coverage would have to include IVF and IUI, including private group and individual plans, Medicaid, Medicare, and federal employee plans. Plans cannot charge higher out-of-pocket costs for fertility care than for other medical services.
• The Department of Defense and the VA must provide IVF, IUI, and counseling to service members, veterans, and their partners, without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, infertility diagnosis, or marital status. IVF is capped at three oocyte retrievals with unlimited embryo transfers.
• Active duty members can freeze and store eggs or sperm for free before deploying to combat or taking hazardous assignments, with storage continuing until one year after they leave service. This preserves their ability to have children if injured.
• The bill sweepingly preempts conflicting state law, whether adopted before or after enactment, and lets the Attorney General and private parties sue states that block fertility care. This shifts regulation of reproductive medicine toward the federal level.