“Amy and I’s lives have taken an incredible turn,” says Blattner, who is filmed sitting with his wife at their home in Maine, as the video begins.
“We’ve gone all over the state of Maine, from Ogunquit to Madawaska, from Rumford to Calis, and we’ve held more than 30 town halls” in recent months, he explains. “But in the background, we were also trying to do something else, something we had been trying to do for a couple of years, which was to start a family.”
“One tour here in the US costs $25,000. One tour in Norway costs $5,500. Even when you add it to the plane tickets, it’s unbeatable.” – Graham Blatner, US Senate candidate
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Throughout his Senate campaign, Blatner, a military veteran who has benefited from Virginia’s health care system, has consistently criticized the social injustices and economic backwardness of the country’s dominant for-profit health care system. In support of Medicare for All, Blattner said a single-payer system — with no copayments, profit motives from giant insurance companies, and free Medicare at the point of service — is “The answer“It is a much better way to manage the health needs of Americans, especially working people.
“I don’t think we should live in a system where only the wealthy can afford health care,” Blattner said at a campaign event last year.
In December, just before the new year, he said: “I will fight for Medicare for All in the Senate. Until we win it, I will support every bill that expands Medicare and Medicaid, lowers prescription drug costs, and puts the health care needs of the working class first.”
In an announcement Saturday about their infertility journey and where it’s headed next, the couple explained that they first looked to the VA to see if it would be a viable path to making IVF — which can cost $25,000 per round of treatment — less expensive.
Unfortunately, they discovered, as Amy explains, that because “infertility was part of my body” and less than Graham, the VA system wouldn’t cover the treatments.
“By the way, we’re going to have to have a conversation in the Senate,” Graham said of this dynamic. “It takes two people. If you want to have a baby, it’s not one person’s job.”
But while the VA’s denial may have been “the end of the road,” Amy feared, her doctor had told her about other patients who had sought treatment abroad, where IVF treatments could be a fraction of the cost — a familiar pattern when it comes to what people in other countries pay for care, treatment and medications compared to the United States.
With Amy emphasizing that she wanted to have a child of her own “ever since I knew the female body was capable of doing it,” the idea of going to Norway was a lifeline.
“I’m watching the woman that I love, that I want to start a family with, go through this infertility experience,” Graham says in the video. “I can see how it affected her. I have a lot of respect and a lot…I’m very impressed with the way she was able to handle it.”
Ultimately, they explain, it was the affordability dynamic that led them to take the idea of moving abroad seriously.
“One tour here in the United States costs $25,000. One tour in Norway costs $5,500,” Graham explains. “Even when you add the plane tickets, it’s unbeatable.”
“I don’t mean to get political, but it’s a real indicator of how flawed our health care system is,” he continues. “For us, the Senate campaign is a way to make sure that others don’t have to go through the same things we went through, and that we can help build power to get the things that working people in this country need, like a universal health care system that provides fertility support.”
Graham and Amy first spoke about their trip to local journalist Jesse Ellison with Central Coast villager For a story published Thursday. In their conversation with the local newspaper, they both talked about how the deeply personal struggle of trying to get pregnant was completely inseparable from the real reasons that led them to decide to support Graham’s Senate run.
From Ellison’s reports:
“It’s not so much about the Victim Assistance Act as it is about the fact that ordinary working-class people in this country can’t afford IVF,” Plattner told me. “The concept of insurance companies not covering infertility treatment is why we need universal health care. Our infertility story is just another example among many, and we know we’re not the only ones struggling with this.” So the two decided to talk about this choice publicly as well. Because if flying to Norway, spending two weeks in an Airbnb, and paying for health care out of pocket makes more financial sense than getting care here in America, well, that says something in itself.
For her part, Ames says, “I really wanted to share the story with any of you who have struggled with infertility. I don’t know if I have all the answers or if sharing this story makes you feel like you’re part of an infertility community, but I hope this offers you some hope.”
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