New Law Blocks Insurers from Penalizing Living Organ Donors, Clarifies FMLA Leave Rights

The Living Donor Protection Act of 2025 is a clear, targeted piece of legislation designed to remove major financial and employment hurdles for people who choose to donate an organ while they are alive. In short, it tells insurance companies and employers that they can’t treat living organ donors like a liability.

The bill focuses on three main areas: stopping insurance discrimination, ensuring job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and making sure the public health information about donation is up-to-date and accurate.

No Penalty for Saving a Life: The Insurance Fix

This is perhaps the biggest change for everyday people considering donation. Section 2 of the Act explicitly prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage, canceling a policy, or charging higher premiums for life, disability, or long-term care insurance simply because someone has been a living organ donor.

Think about it: before this, a potential donor might worry that saving a stranger’s life would make their own life insurance policy skyrocket, or even be impossible to get. This law shuts that down. If you donate a kidney, for example, your insurer can’t use that fact alone to hike your rates. They can still base decisions on "actual, unique, and material risks" they find, but the donation itself is off-limits as the sole reason for denial or increased cost. This is a huge relief for anyone juggling family finances and planning for the future.

FMLA: Job Protection for Recovery Time

Donating an organ requires major surgery and recovery time—time that most people can’t afford to lose their job over. Section 3 clarifies that undergoing organ donation surgery now explicitly qualifies as a “serious health condition” under FMLA.

What this means in practice is job security. If you work for a company covered by FMLA, you now have the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to recover from the procedure. This applies equally to private sector workers and federal employees. For federal workers, there’s an added perk: they can choose to substitute their FMLA time with any available paid leave (like sick or annual leave) first, saving their FMLA entitlement for other needs down the road.

Clearing Up the Facts

Finally, the bill addresses the information gap. Section 4 mandates that the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) must review and update all public educational materials about living organ donation within six months. These updates must clearly explain the benefits and risks of donation, and critically, they must include information about the new insurance protections and FMLA rights established by this Act.

This ensures that people considering donation get the full picture, not just the medical risks, but the legal and financial protections that are now in place. It’s about making sure the government’s public resources reflect the reality of the law, giving potential donors the confidence that the system has their back.