Meeting my Congressman

Dear Barbara Collura, Executive Director - RESOLVE,

I met with Congressman Awesome, and a member of his staff, this morning. We spent about 45 minutes talking in his District Office.

 

I'd sent him the Infertility 101 Factsheet and Family Act Factsheet in advance of our meeting. He'd had a chance to read thru the material and review it with his chief of staff. He explained that it was unlikely that this legislation would successfully pass through the Senate, since it would set a precedent for other similar bills to follow.

 

He felt that we would have more success working on advocacy at the state level, or as part of federal health reform, or even as part of federal tax reform efforts that he sees coming in the next 5-10 years.

 

I asked him about sponsoring similar legislation in the House, and while he supported the concept, he did not think that that a tax credit for any specific medical procedure would be successful.

 

I shared a little bit about the experience that my husband and I have had trying to build our family. He was empathetic and commented on the fact that people don't talk much about infertility. I explained that a year earlier I would not have been able to sit and have this conversation because I would be crying and incoherent. Besides, I said that people don't normally talk about how they conceived their children as it is a highly personal and private matter. I explained that it was only now that I am 19 weeks pregnant, thanks to the miracles of IVF and a retirement savings account, that I was able to speak about the pain grief and loss of our journey.

 

He suggested that we could write off medical expenses that exceeded 7.5% of our income. I replied that we'd spent nearly 50% of our gross income on medical expenses last year and appreciated the medical deduction.

 

At one point in the conversation he used the term "infertility and other exotic diseases". I didn't draw attention specifically to that statement but tried to emphasize the prevalence of infertility. I compared infertility to breast cancer in its prevalence, but reiterated that infertility is usually suffered silently.

 

He reiterated the suggestion to work on this at a State level, especially considering that we have a progressive insurance commissioner in office now. He also suggested that I lobby my employer, the County, to provide infertility coverage as part of our benefits. My boss is a County Supervisor and he was sure that she could get our coverage expanded. I assured him that I was working with the County on this issue, but that the county contracts with the State CalPers plan and we actually had little local control over the benefits offered.

 

I also tried to emphasize how lucky my husband and I were to have access to the funds necessary to receive treatment. I explained that most young couples in their 20's and early 30s who are experiencing infertility do not have a savings or retirement account to finance their treatment. I told him that my husband and I have spent $50,000 on testing, diagnosis, and treatment.

 

Finally we talked a little about the medical side of infertility. I urged him to support additional research in this area. The treatments that we used were not available 10 years ago, and we would have benefited greatly from treatments that will be available 10 years from now. I mentioned the CDC workplan and thanked him for the SART statistics that track IVF success rates. I explained that the costs of infertility could be much better controlled if there were mandates for coverage. In our case we chose to transfer two embryos because our costs would be the same for one or two, however if we had multiples the cost of a high risk pregnancy and NICU care would be borne by our insurance company. The cost of one IVF cycle that limits the number of embryos to transfer would be significantly less than the cost of a baby who requires the NICU.

 

We also talked a little bit about my work on other political issues, namely fighting for the inclusion on maternity coverage as a basic benefit of all health insurance plans, and my paid work for our local County Supervisor.

 

There was more to our discussion, but I think that this highlights the most relevant parts. Please feel free to call if you have any questions or would like me to elaborate more.

 

Thank you again for championing these visits and for providing the materials to facilitate this visit.

 

I would like to plan a follow up visit to meet with Dave Jones the California State Insurance Commissioner. Is there a chance that a RESOLVE staff or lobbyist would be able to join me for such a meeting?

 

take care,