Congress protects organ donors from insurance discrimination
H.R. 4583 — Living Donor Protection Act of 2025 · Filed by Don Bacon (R-NE) · 154 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 22, 2025 · Referred to committee
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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 full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
living organ donors (protected from insurance discrimination); organ transplant programs (increased donor pool may reduce wait times and improve outcomes)