May 31, 2016 12:00 AM Living organ donors today experience higher premiums or denial of insurance coverage based solely on their status as a donor. Is it right that a person making such a sacrifice to save the life of a stranger or family member should be required to deal with more uncertainty beyond recovery? Should we not be trying to relieve their burdens instead and promote living donation? In late February, the Living Donor Protection Act was introduced in Congress to do just this. The bill will protect living organ donors by prohibiting insurance companies from denying or limiting life, disability and long-term care insurance to donors and from charging higher premiums. The bill also allows living donors to use time granted through the Family and Medical Leave Act to recover from donation. This is significant for me because my son, just 26 years old, received a kidney from a non-related living donor after waiting for two years. This man saved my son’s life, and he deserves the protections that the Living Donor Protection Act would afford him. Nationally, there are more than 100,000 people waiting to receive a kidney transplant — that is five out of every six organ recipients. In 2015, 18,000 kidney transplants were performed and nearly one-third were from living donors. I hope that Sen. Bob Casey, Sen. Pat Toomey and U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus will join in co-sponsoring this important legislation. ROBERTA S. REED McCandless