Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Representatives Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today introduced the Living Donor Protection Act. The legislation would prohibit insurance companies from declining or limiting coverage or increasing the premium rate for coverage of a person under a life, disability, or long-term care insurance policy due to a person’s living organ donor status; would provide job security to donors by clarifying that donors may use Family and Medical Leave Act time to recover from organ donation surgery; and directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to update educational materials on the benefits of organ donation and the impact of organ donation on the access to insurance.
The bills are nearly identical to the Burgess-Nadler legislation introduced in the 113th Congress. ASTS worked with AST, the American Society of Nephrology, and the National Kidney Foundation to find bipartisan cosponsors to introduce the bills in the 114th Congress. You can read the ASTS letter of support here.