“In general what we know is that we’re not aware of any plan that has a specific policy related to premium increases for people who are living donors, we’ve heard anecdotally that it may have occurred for a small percentage of people,” said Susan Pisano, vice president of communications at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
“We did reach out to a couple of large companies to find out what their policies may be, and I think unless you were talking about somebody who may have been a donor very, very recently, [we’ve heard] over the long-term that risk declines…and the companies we’ve talked to didn’t have a policy that would increase premiums,” Pisano said, declining to name companies AHIP had contacted.
However, as part of the healthcare reform, which has been called the Affordable Health Care for America Act, insurers will be required to eliminate exclusions for pre-existing conditions in the individual insurance market effective January 1, 2014. This will greatly affect how all living donors receive insurance coverage post-donation.
But health coverage is not the only type of insurance directly related to organ donation; people should also secure appropriate disability insurance ahead of time, just in case a loved one or close friend needs a donation. Most disability plans do require the policy be in force for 6 to 12 months before the policyholder is even eligible to receive benefits. This will prevent someone from purchasing a disability policy for the sole purpose of donating organs to collect benefits.
Organ donation will not keep you away from work for just a few days; rather, several days of work may be missed for the pre-surgery evaluation, and anywhere from two to five weeks of work may be missed for post-surgery recovery. This would depend on whether the surgery is laparoscopic (less invasive) or non-laparoscopic.
