The Honor Our Living Donors Act removes financial barriers for organ donors by prohibiting income-based reimbursement restrictions and requiring annual federal reporting on program funding adequacy.
Jay Obernolte
Representative
CA-23
The Honor Our Living Donors Act removes financial barriers for organ donors by prohibiting the consideration of a recipient’s income during the reimbursement process and eliminating expectations of payment from recipients. Additionally, the bill mandates an annual report to Congress to ensure that federal grant programs provide sufficient funding to fully cover all qualifying expenses for living donors.
Honor Our Living Donors Act Prohibits Recipient Income Checks and Mandates Full Expense Reimbursement Reporting
If you’ve ever considered being a living organ donor—say, giving a kidney to a friend or a portion of your liver to a relative—you know it’s a massive physical and emotional commitment. But right now, the financial side can be a bureaucratic headache. The Honor Our Living Donors Act steps in to streamline the federal grant program that helps donors cover out-of-pocket costs like travel and subsistence. Under Section 2, the bill explicitly prohibits grant recipients from looking at the organ recipient’s income when deciding whether to reimburse a donor. This means if you’re a teacher donating to a wealthy business owner, your reimbursement for travel and lodging is protected; the financial status of the person getting the organ no longer dictates whether you get your expenses covered.
Cutting the Financial Strings
The bill also cleans up some old, confusing language regarding who pays for what. Section 3 removes a provision in the Public Health Service Act that previously allowed for an 'expectation' that organ recipients might pay for the organ itself. By striking this, the law clarifies a seamless prohibition on paying for organs, ensuring the process remains focused on altruism and federal support rather than private transactions between patients. For a donor who might be taking unpaid time off work or flying across the country, this creates a clearer boundary: the federal grant program is there to support your costs, and the recipient isn't expected to foot the bill for the organ itself.
Accountability for Every Cent
One of the most practical changes is a new transparency requirement that forces the government to admit if they are falling short. Section 4 requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit an annual report to Congress by December 31. This isn't just a 'feel-good' update; the report must specifically calculate whether the grants were actually enough to cover every participating donor’s qualifying expenses. If you’re a donor who only got 75% of your travel costs back because the fund ran low, the government now has to publicly report exactly how many people like you were left hanging and exactly how much more money is needed to make everyone whole. It’s a move toward ensuring that 'qualifying expenses' actually get paid in full, rather than just being a promise on paper.