Veteran Families Health Services Act of 2025
The Veteran Families Health Services Act of 2025 is a comprehensive package to expand and coordinate reproductive health services for active-duty service members, veterans, and their spouses/partners or gestational surrogates. Title I authorizes DoD to provide fertility treatments, counseling, and fertility preservation for service members, with specific allowances for IVF (up to three oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers), use of donated genetic material if needed, and procedures to preserve reproductive material before deployments or hazardous duties. It also requires DoD to establish fertility preservation protocols after injury or illness, and to store reproductive material for up to one year after retirement or discharge with options to continue storage at personal or private facilities. The bill creates formal DoD–VA coordination to ensure continuity of care and to handle reimbursement for certain cryopreservation costs. Title II extends fertility treatment and counseling to veterans through the VA, including adoption assistance for eligible veterans. It establishes a VA framework for providing fertility services and counseling with the same IVF limits as in DoD (three oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers), requires a copayment from veterans in line with other VA hospital care payments, allows use of donated material if needed, and clarifies ownership and disposition of reproductive material. It also authorizes collaboration between DoD and VA on research to improve reproductive health care for veterans and requires VA regulations within two years. Overall, the act aims to ensure smoother continuity of reproductive care across military and veteran status, expand access to assisted reproduction, and support adoption as an option for veterans.
Key Points
- 1DoD fertility services for active-duty members and their spouses/partners/gestational surrogates, including IVF with up to three oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers; allows use of donated reproductive material if the member cannot provide material.
- 2DoD to establish fertility preservation procedures after injury or illness and to store reproductive material for up to one year after retirement; includes advance directives and military testamentary instruments to govern use after death or loss of capacity.
- 3DoD and VA must coordinate on fertility treatment and preservation, including a memorandum of understanding to ensure uninterrupted care for members transitioning to veteran status; VA may reimburse DoD for cryopreservation and related costs for veterans.
- 4VA authority expanded to cover fertility treatment and counseling as a VA medical benefit, with the same IVF limits, plus a copayment requirement for recipients similar to other VA hospital care charges.
- 5Adoption assistance for veterans (up to the cost of not more than three adoptions) and a new VA framework for ongoing assistance, provider navigation, and continuity of care across locations; authority to support research on reproduction and infertility in collaboration with DoD and HHS; two-year deadline for VA and DoD to issue regulations.