Some kidney donors struggle to buy life insurance: study

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although people who have donated a kidney have passed a rigorous battery of tests and tend to be healthier than the average person, many report difficulty getting or changing health or life insurance policies after the surgery, according to a new study. “These are the healthiest people in the nation, they’ve undergone more health screening scrutiny than anybody else for any process,” said senior author Dr. Dorry L. Segev. “We only allow the healthiest people to do this.” Segev is an abdominal transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, where the study took place. “The thought that somebody who has perfectly normal kidney function will have to fight with their insurance company is troubling,” he told Reuters Health.