National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020
Floor Speech
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Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I just raise concerns with two of the amendments that are in this en bloc amendment.
Amendment No. 5 is one that extends free coverage for pregnancy prevention, and with the amendment, extends to all FDA-approved drugs and methods. Why I find it interesting is that, of course, a couple of years ago, we actually increased the copays on TRICARE for former members.
If a former member has diabetes, they have a $28 copay for insulin. So this is kind of strange because what we are doing is selecting one type of drug and saying there are no copays for this, yet we have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of members who take an important drug like insulin and have to pay a copay. It just doesn't make sense.
With regard to amendment No. 13, amendment No. 13 extends in vitro fertilization coverage which, up until now, has been for members whose problems have been related to their military service. It extends it to all members as well. It is going to greatly increase the number of embryos created.
Although I have no disagreement with extending the coverage, the problem is, the amendment and the statute don't deal with what members are going to do with these embryos. It presents serious life concerns, due to the sheer number of embryos created that will often be discarded, now with government payment involved. Many will subsequently be killed or frozen indefinitely, leaving these early lives in limbo.
There are no limits within the amendment as to how many cycles of IVF may be covered, how many embryos may be created or frozen. Of course, there are no requirements to protect the embryos that have been formed.
It is for that deficiency, it is for creating a permanent statutory entitlement without dealing with what some people object to, which is treating those embryos created in a comprehensive, long-range fashion, for those reasons, I express concerns about amendments No. 5 and No. 13.
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