Congress protects organ donors from insurance discrimination

What it does

This bill prohibits life, disability, and long-term care insurers from denying coverage, canceling policies, or raising premiums for people solely because they are living organ donors—unless the insurer can prove actual, unique, and material actuarial risk specific to that donor. It also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to update public educational materials within 6 months to inform donors about the benefits, risks, and insurance implications of organ donation.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a consumer protection—prohibiting discriminatory insurance practices—paired with a public health objective (increasing organ donation by removing financial disincentives). It is not a subsidy, carve-out, or deregulation; it is a restraint on insurer discretion in service of both individual fairness and public health.

What the text implies

• Insurers may respond by tightening underwriting on other health factors or increasing baseline premiums across the board to offset perceived risk from donors, shifting costs to the broader insured population rather than donors specifically.
• The 'actual, unique, and material actuarial risk' standard is not defined in the bill and will require regulatory interpretation or litigation, creating uncertainty about what evidence insurers must produce to justify differential treatment.
• The bill does not address life insurance underwriting practices in states without explicit insurance regulation authority, potentially creating enforcement gaps in some jurisdictions.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Living organ donors—a small but morally significant population—gain concrete protection against insurance discrimination, removing a financial penalty that previously discouraged donation. The public benefits from increased organ donation rates, which saves lives. The restriction on insurers is narrow (only prohibits discrimination without actuarial justification) and does not eliminate legitimate risk assessment.

Who stands to gain

• living organ donors (protected from insurance discrimination)
• organ transplant programs (increased donor pool may reduce wait times and improve outcomes)

Named in the bill

Department of Health and Human Services, State insurance regulators, Life insurance companies, Disability insurance companies, Long-term care insurance companies, organdonor.gov

Where it stands

168 cosponsors: 131 Democrats, 37 Republicans.

• Jul 22, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Jul 22, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Financial Services and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for…”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

16 lobbying clients named this bill on 27 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $10,485,837 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 95% of bills with at least one filing.

Don Bacon, the sponsor, reported $513,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• American Council of Life Insurers — $4,085,837 on 3 filings
• The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company — $3,130,000 on 3 filings
• Fresenius Medical Care North America — $1,190,000 on 1 filing
• Pacific Life Insurance Company — $480,000 on 1 filing
• American Kidney Fund — $410,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.