Donating an organ shouldn’t mean higher insurance bills. Congress, fix this | Opinion
March is National Kidney Month, a time when the kidney community comes to Washington, D.C., ready to make the case for patients, donors and the people who love them. This year, our ask is simple: Finish the job.
For more than a decade, Congress has considered a straightforward and bipartisan reform that is now long overdue. This year, Congress can finally pass the Living Donor Protection Act, and for the first time, we have real reason to believe it will happen.
Late last month, the Living Donor Protection Act advanced out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which includes Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Kansas’ Roger Marshall. This was the furthest it has ever moved in the legislative process. That is no small thing. It is a signal that momentum has shifted, that long-term advocacy has been rewarded and that the finish line is now in sight. Congress should seize this moment and sprint toward it.
The Living Donor Protection Act addresses a straightforward injustice that discourages potential donors from stepping forward. People who choose to donate a kidney or part of their liver, giving the gift of life to a stranger or a loved one, can face discrimination from insurance companies simply because they did so. One in 4 living donors report being charged higher premiums or denied life, disability or long-term care insurance coverage, not because they are high-risk, but because they were generous. In fact, because of the rigorous screening required before donation, the average living donor is healthier than the average American. The LDPA would prohibit insurers from penalizing living organ donors in this way and ensure that the Family and Medical Leave Act protections donors are entitled to are clear and enforceable.
This is not a controversial idea. Thirty-five states have already established some form of living donor protection, recognizing the need for a baseline of fairness. The federal LDPA would extend that protection to every American. In the last Congress, a bipartisan majority of the House cosponsored the bill, joined by nearly half the Senate. That level of support speaks for itself. With the Senate HELP Committee having now acted, and the House building momentum to move its own version forward, both chambers are positioned to get this done together.
At a time when Americans are worried about the rising cost of health care and the fairness of our insurance system, the Living Donor Protection Act speaks directly to those concerns. It says if you step up and save someone’s life, your own coverage should not be put at risk. That message resonates across party lines, across geography and across every community that has been touched by organ failure and the long, desperate wait for a transplant.
The need is urgent. It is estimated that 17 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant, 12 of them waiting for a kidney. Polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary, life-threatening condition, is one of the leading causes of kidney failure. More living donors means more lives saved. Every barrier we remove matters.
Congress has spent more than a decade expressing support for this reform. Now is the moment to convert that stated support into law. There is no good reason for this Congress to end without the Living Donor Protection Act on the books. Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran should follow the lead of their colleagues on the HELP Committee.
The kidney and transplant communities have been patient for long enough. Living donors have waited long enough. It’s time for our representatives and senators to get this done.
Susan Bushnell is president and CEO of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit PKD Foundation in Kansas City, the only organization in the United States solely dedicated to finding treatments and a cure for polycystic kidney disease.