Bipartisan HOPE Act Reintroduced in Congress to Expand Fertility Coverage Nationwide

March 26, 2026

For Immediate Release

Washington, DC—The Helping to Optimize Patients’ Experience (HOPE) with Fertility Services Act was reintroduced Thursday, uplifting the first-ever bipartisan federal legislation to mandate insurance coverage for infertility diagnosis, treatment, and standard fertility preservation services nationwide in the 119th Congress.

“It’s encouraging to see bipartisan leadership recognizing fertility care as essential health care,” said ASRM Chief Advocacy & Policy Officer Sean Tipton. “Establishing a federal standard for coverage would bring greater consistency, reduce financial barriers, and help ensure more patients have a real opportunity to access the care they need.”

“Cost should not be a barrier to one’s ability to build or grow their family – but without comprehensive insurance coverage, it too often is,” said ASRM board member and head of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility division at Johns Hopkins University, Valerie Baker, MD. “For the first time ever, more than 100,000 babies were born through IVF in a single year. The demand for fertility services is growing, so too should access. Expanding coverage for fertility services has never been more critical.”

While the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) sets minimum standards for employer-sponsored insurance, it currently does not include a federal standard for fertility care. The HOPE Act would close that gap by mandating baseline coverage requirements across private insurance plans.

The CDC estimates that millions of Americans struggle with infertility, with prevalence increasing significantly with age. Because of limited insurance coverage, many patients pay tens of thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for clinically proven, board-certified treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF).

For patients diagnosed with infertility, including in situations caused by medical treatments such as chemotherapy, the bill would cover services including ovulation induction, genetic screening and diagnosis, cryopreservation of reproductive genetic materials, intrauterine insemination, and IVF.

The legislation is led by Reps. Zach Nunn (R-IA) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and cosponsored by Reps. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Laurel Lee (R-FL), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), who marked the announcement at a press conference Thursday alongside patient advocates and providers from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and RESOLVE: The National Infertility and Family Building Association.