One of the first things that is checked after a matching donor is found is that they are in good health. Very good health. So when Radburn Royer donated a kidney to his daughter, Erika, he was glad to be told he was in great shape.
But when he tried to get medical insurance and life insurance, he was told he had chronic kidney disease as he only had one kidney. The refusal has stunned him. As a donor he had to be in great shape to be accepted, but two insurance companies are saying otherwise.
There is little data on how often kidney donors have trouble obtaining insurance, but advocates say the fear of being uninsurable may be a powerful deterrent to donation. A 2006 study done by an advocacy organization for transplant professionals found that 39 percent of transplant centers reported that they had had eligible donors who declined to donate because they feared having future insurance problems. Being treated like this could potentially affect thousands of people (especially those with family of their own who would like to think they would be looked after if anything went wrong).
This article mentions several others who faced similar treatment when seaking various types of insurance. Other donors faced problems at work if they needed more time to recover than expected. This sort of thing will not encourage potential donors
