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To amend the Public Health Service Act to eliminate consideration of the income of organ recipients in providing reimbursement of expenses to donating individuals, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to eliminate consideration of an organ recipient's income when providing reimbursement for expenses incurred by living organ donors. The reimbursement program would reimburse donors based on their own documented expenses, such as lost wages, travel, and medical costs, regardless of the recipient's financial situation. The bill removes provisions that previously allowed for expectations of payments from organ recipients and clarifies that donor reimbursement amounts should not vary based on recipient income. The bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit annual reports to Congress documenting whether the reimbursement program has adequate funding and how many donors did not receive full reimbursement for their qualifying expenses. The reports must also include the estimated total funding needed to fully reimburse all participating donors.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM] (D-NM)
3 cosponsors
- Sen. Boozman, John [R-AR] (R-AR)
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR)
- Sen. Rounds, Mike [R-SD] (R-SD)
Actions (2)
- Mar 11, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
- Mar 11, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 11 (legislative day, March 10), 2025
Mr. Lujan (for himself and Mr. Boozman) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to eliminate consideration of the income of organ recipients in providing reimbursement of expenses to donating individuals, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Honor Our Living Donors Act”.
SEC. 2. NO CONSIDERATION OF INCOME OF ORGAN RECIPIENT.
Section 377 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274f) is amended—
(1) by redesignating subsections (c) through (f) as subsections (d) through (g), respectively;
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following:
“(c) No Consideration of Income of Organ Recipient.—The recipient of a grant under this section, in providing reimbursement to a donating individual through such grant, shall not give any consideration to the income of the organ recipient.”; and
(3) in subsection (f), as so redesignated—
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking “subsection
(c)(1)” and inserting “subsection (d)(1)”; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking “subsection
(c)(2)” and inserting “subsection (d)(2)”.
SEC. 3. REMOVAL OF EXPECTATION OF PAYMENTS BY ORGAN RECIPIENTS.
Section 377(e) of the Public Health Service Act (4224 U.S.C. 274f(e)), as redesignated by section 2(1), is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), by adding “or” at the end;
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking “; or” and inserting a period; and
(3) by striking paragraph (3).
SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT.
Section 377 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 274f), as amended by sections 2 and 3, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(h) Annual Report.—Not later than December 31 of each year, the Secretary shall—
“(1) prepare, submit to Congress, and make public a report on whether grants under this section provided adequate funding during the preceding fiscal year to reimburse all donating individuals participating in the grant program under this section for all qualifying expenses; and
“(2) include in each such report—
“(A) the estimated number of all donating individuals participating in the grant program under this section who did not receive reimbursement for all qualifying expenses during the preceding fiscal year; and
“(B) the total amount of funding that is estimated to be necessary to fully reimburse donating individuals participating in the grant program under this section for all qualifying expenses.”. <all>
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