IVF with HSAs Act of 2024

Madam President, I have been called many names--some nice and some not so nice--Governor, Senator, husband, Dad; but my favorite is Grandpa.

When I first became Governor back in 2010, Ann and I had no grandchildren. Fast-forward to today, and we are blessed with seven beautiful grandkids.

As I speak today, my daughter is using in vitro fertilization, or IVF, to grow her family. As a grandpa, of course, I am thrilled.

And thanks to the people of Florida, I have also had the opportunity as a U.S. Senator to do what I can to make this amazing science that helps bring beautiful babies into the world more accessible and affordable for millions of Americans.

The truth about IVF is that it is one of the few unifying policies that almost all Democrats and Republicans agree with. Earlier this year, a ruling of the Alabama Supreme Court concerned many of us, myself included. Thankfully, the Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature swiftly updated their laws to ensure IVF is protected for citizens of their State.

Right after the ruling, I introduced a resolution with my colleague in the House, Kat Cammack, which outlined the overwhelming support in Congress for IVF and the millions of families using it to grow their families. We built on that resolution by then introducing the IVF with HSAs Act to expand access to IVF by doubling the contribution limits of health savings accounts, or HSAs, and expanding eligibility to utilize them by decoupling them from traditional high-deductible health plans. The real-world impact of my bill is that millions of Americans will be able to save more money in tax-free accounts to pay for medical expenses like IVF.

We should all be able to agree that it is a good thing for more families to have an opportunity to grow. So many of us here are parents and grandparents. We should all be able to agree that more babies is wonderful. That is why I am here to ask for unanimous consent to pass my bill. If the Senate is serious about ensuring opportunities for families, we can start today by allowing this good bill to get sent over to the House, where I am confident it will pass, and we can send it to the President's desk for signature.

Madam President, I am going to wait for Senator Wyden.

Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 4771 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, I appreciate my colleague being here.

First off, here is the positive. I think we all support IVF. I support IVF. I have a daughter going through it right now. I am glad IVF is legal and available in all 50 States, and there is no actual risk of it going away. I think we all know this.

What I propose is the IVF with HSAs Act. It is going to expand access to IVF by doubling the contribution limits of Health Saving Accounts, and it is going to expand eligibility to include them by decoupling them from traditional high-deductible health plans. The impact of this will be millions of Americans will be able to save money and have better access to it in tax-free accounts to pay for medical expenses like IVF.

That is all positive. The opportunity we have here is not about whether IVF will be here tomorrow or next year or 5 years from now. Everyone knows IVF is here to stay. Today, our opportunity is to help more people use IVF to grow their families. But Democrats, unfortunately--my colleagues--decided to block this bill.

I know my Democratic colleagues are going to call up for a vote tomorrow a bill, but it seems like it is just scoring political points. They are going to bring up the same bill that didn't pass before. And what is frustrating to me is--I support IVF; I think all my colleagues support IVF--there wasn't an attempt between Democrats and Republicans to write a bipartisan bill that we could actually get a bill that we could pass.

The last 2 months have just been spent, basically, political posturing. I know it is an election year. I hope the Democrats are going to get serious about doing something that will help benefit hard- working people.

I am disappointed, but I thank my colleague for being here.

Madam President, reserving the right to object.

Madam President, let me go to the policy issue. I know this is very important to my colleague from Florida. And when families are wrestling with this issue, they have the sympathies of all of us.

Here is what concerns me: Families struggling to afford IVF will get virtually no benefit from the Scott proposal that more than doubles the annual contribution limit. That is the bottom line. Families struggling get virtually nothing from this.

I have just felt--and I am sorry that we started a little bit early because I wanted to hear Senator Scott's remarks. I just think, if you look overall, Republicans have just had no interest in protecting in vitro fertilization or reproductive rights.

The fact is, Donald Trump, some time ago, claimed that he was going to require insurers to cover IVF. As far as I can tell, not Senator Scott, but Republicans generally basically never thought he was serious about it, which is the case for all of these proposals, virtually, that he is making, sometimes more than one a week.

So my view is, the money that this bill would cost is better spent on extending the expansion of the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits because they actually lower the cost of health insurance for typical families. That is what we want to do: lower the cost of health insurance for typical families. By the way, that is set to expire at the end of next year unless Congress takes action.

So for those reasons, Madam President, I object.