Jaime Herrera Beutler
To start off National Kidney Month, U.S Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, and U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, and Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, introduced legislation to protect the rights of living organ donors, according to a news release.
According to the release, the Living Donor Protection Act would prevent living donors from high insurance premiums, codify Department of Labor (DOL) guidance that covers donors under the Family Medical Leave Act.
According to the release, organ donation saves thousands of lives every year, but roadblocks remain that too often stop individuals from becoming living donors. According to a 2014 study in the American Journal of Transplantation, as many as 27 percent of living organ donors experience difficulty securing or paying for insurance after their procedures because of discriminatory practices. Others face job loss after taking required time off to recover from their donation surgery.
The release said the Living Donor Protection Act would protect living organ donors and promote organ donation in three ways:
The act would prohibit life, disability, and long-term care insurance companies from denying or limiting coverage and from charging higher premiums for living organ donors
The act amends the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to specifically include living organ donation as a serious health condition for private and civil service employees.
The act directs the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to update their materials on live organ donation to reflect these new protections and encourage more individuals to consider donating an organ.
“Lives are lost each day in this country because folks are forced to wait too long for kidney transplants. But there’s hope; if Congress passes the Living Donor Protection Act that I’m helping lead we’ll remove barriers for those waiting in a long line to receive a transplant and save more lives. I’m going to continue championing common-sense, bipartisan solutions that seek to match life-saving organs with the thousands of Americans who desperately need them,” Herrera Beutler said in the news release.
