By: Lauren Ataman-Millhouse -
An important update from the Alliance for Fertility Preservation:
On behalf of the Alliance for Fertility Preservation, we wanted to give you a summary of the great strides that we made this year advocating for coverage in Texas!
First, and most importantly, we want to sincerely thank many of you for supporting our efforts to protect parenthood after cancer for Texas patients and survivors over the past several months. It was truly a team effort! Although the legislation did not ultimately pass, remarkable progress was made during our first attempt at securing this coverage in Texas.
We had a tremendous lobby day at the Texas Capitol and our coalition was recognized on the Senate floor during Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week . During our lobby day meetings, our advocates secured a commitment from the Chairman of the House Insurance committee to consider our bill in a hearing the following week.
The hearing featured patients and experts delivering compelling and moving testimony about the value of this coverage. As a result of this powerful testimony, the bill passed the Committee by a unanimous vote. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get our bill scheduled for a floor vote by the deadline this session. Through our work in other states, we know all too well that it often takes more than one session to pass a bill.
Although we are disappointed for young adult Texans who will be diagnosed and have to face possible infertility without insurance coverage, we are determined to continue the momentum and push this over the finish line during the next legislative session in 2021. We are actively developing our advocacy plan for the future, and we look forward to collaborating with many of you to realize our common goal. Thank you again for your commitment to this issue and we hope we can count on your continued support moving forward.