Congratulations to the Matayka family on the arrival of their twins. Twins Are First Babies Born Using Tricare IVF Benefit | KPBS.org.
The Matayka babies were conceived using IVF because their father suffered serious injuries while serving in Afghanistan, making it necessary for him to use IVF in order to have children. Fortunately, the Mataykas were able to use a newly implemented benefit available from their military health plan in order to have the medical procedures paid for by the health plan.
This is definitely a step in the right direction. It’s been estimated that almost 2000 service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan require assistance with conceiving children as a result of their injuries. Hopefully, the policy change will benefit these brave men and women.
However, there’s simply no excuse for leaving a gap for military members who are infertile for reasons other than service-related injuries. All members of the military deserve equal access to all levels of fertility treatment.
What can you do? RESOLVE has a list of ways you can take action.
