S-5498.2

SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6039

BySenate Health & Long Term Care (originally sponsored by Senators Keiser, Hunt, Saldaña, and Wilson, C.)

AN ACT Relating to enacting the living donor act; adding a new section to chapter 48.18 RCW; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 48.18 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person engaged in the business of insurance may not:

(a) Decline or limit coverage of a person under a policy or contract for life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, or long-term care insurance solely due to the status of the person as a living organ donor;

(b) Preclude a person from donating all or part of an organ as a condition of receiving or continuing to receive a policy or contract for life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, or long-term care insurance; or

(c) Otherwise discriminate in the offering, issuance, cancellation, amount of coverage, price, or any other condition of a policy or contract for life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, or long-term care insurance for a person based solely and without any additional actuarial risks upon the status of the person as a living organ donor. This subsection does not prohibit fair discrimination on the basis of sex, or marital status, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical handicap when bona fide statistical differences in risk or exposure have been substantiated.

(2) The commissioner shall make educational materials available to the health plans and the public on the access of living organ donors to insurance.

(3) The commissioner may adopt rules to implement this section.

(4) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(a) "Disability insurance" has the same meaning as in RCW 48.11.030.

(b) "Health insurance" has the same meaning as "health benefit plan" in RCW 48.43.005.

(c) "Life insurance" has the same meaning as in RCW 48.11.020.

(d) "Living organ donor" means an individual who has donated all or part of an organ and is not deceased.

(e) "Long-term care insurance" has the same meaning as in RCW 48.83.020.

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