The Living Donor Protection Act is Still Awaiting Congressional Approval

With 2024 nearing a close, kidney health and transplant advocates are pushing Congress to approve the Living Donor Protection Act (H.R. 2923 & S. 1384). The bipartisan bill was reintroduced in April 2023 but remains in committee.

The act aims to prevent life insurance policies, disability insurance policies, and long-term care insurance policies from limiting coverage, increasing costs of denying coverage to people based on their status as living organ donors alone. The act would also amend the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to clearly include recovery from organ donation among the conditions eligible for unpaid, job-protected medical leave from work. Further, language in the act calls for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to update materials related to living organ donation in order to educate the public on the benefits and risks of living organ donation and its impact on access to insurance.

New York State previously adopted a similar law relating to living organ donation, but it is important that such protections are in place for donors across the country.

Nationally, up to 11% of living organ donors have difficulty getting or affording insurance after their procedures, according to a 2007 study. The American Society of Transplantation notes that FMLA does not specify that living organ donors can take unpaid leave to recover from their donation and does not guarantee that donors will have a job waiting for them after surgery.

The Renal Support Network has an easy-to-use form for people wishing to write to their representatives in Congress, as does the National Kidney Foundation. The American Society of Transplantation also has a form for its members, as does the Renal Physicians Association.

Those wishing to keep up on the act's progress can track the Living Donor Protection Act in the House of Representatives and track the Living Donor Protection Act in the Senate.

Organizations calling for Congress to pass the Living Donor Protection Act include:

• American Society of Transplantation

• American Nephrology Nurses Association

• American Association of Kidney Patients

• American Council of Life Insurers

• American Kidney Fund

• American Liver Foundation

• American Society of Nephrology

• American Society of Pediatric Nephrology

• American Society of Transplant Surgeons

• Dialysis Patient Citizens

• National Kidney Foundation

• Renal Physicians Association

• Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation

• United Network for Organ Sharing