A lawsuit has been filed in the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County, with the support of the National Kidney Registry, on behalf of Good Samaritan kidney donor Mr. Kipp Wingo, a veterinarian from Phoenix, Arizona, against the State Farm Life Insurance Company. Mr. Wingo was improperly denied life insurance based solely on his status as a kidney donor, without any additional reasons for denial.
Timothy Wan, General Counsel for the National Kidney Registry, commented, “In the absence of some evidence of co-morbidity, the denial by State Farm is clear discrimination based on Mr. Wingo’s kidney donation in direct violation of Arizona State Law, A.R.S. § 20-448(G) which explicitly prohibits life insurance companies to discriminate against a living organ donor. We cannot allow this blatant violation of the law to stand.”
Garet Hil, CEO of the National Kidney Registry and a living donor himself stated, “The NKR stands with all donors against life insurance discrimination, and we hope that State Farm CEO, Michael Tipsord, steps up to do the right thing for Mr. Wingo.”
Mr. Wingo is represented by the law firm of Gammage and Burnham in Phoenix, Arizona, by attorneys Michael R. King and Melissa Posner Jarrett.
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