Tennessee Enacts Law to Stop Health Coverage for China-Linked Organ Transplants

From Jan. 1, 2026, a health insurer will not be able to fund organ transplant surgery if the operation takes place in China or the organ is from China.

Falun Gong practitioners march during a parade calling for the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s 25 years of ongoing persecution against the spiritual practice, in New York City on July 20, 2024.Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Tennessee has enacted legislation—effective Jan. 1, 2026—to stop health insurance coverage for human organ transplant surgeries linked to China, becoming the fourth state to act against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) killing-for-organs scheme.

The Tennessee Genomic Security and End Organ Harvesting Act, unanimously passed earlier by both chambers of the state legislature, addresses the concerns with Beijing’s potential access to Americans’ genomic data collection as well as complicity with the regime’s state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting.

Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill on March 28.

From Jan. 1, 2026, health insurers in Tennessee will no longer be able to knowingly fund organ transplant surgery and post-transplant care if the operation takes place in China or the organ comes from China via sale or donation. Violators will face $100,000 in fines for each offense.

The law also requires, within 180 days after it takes effect, that medical and research facilities replace genetic sequencers and other software for that purpose if they come from a foreign adversarial country such as China, a state-owned firm in those nations, or entities based there, along with their affiliates. A $10,000 fine applies to each violation or if a facility stores genetic sequencing data outside the United States.

Under the regulation, Tennessee medical facilities, research institutions, and other entities must apply “reasonable encryption methods” and other cybersecurity best practices to ensure genome data security. Remote access to nonpublic genetic data will not be allowed without written approval from the state health commissioner. A patient or research subject could seek a maximum of $5,000 in compensation from an entity that used their genetic information in violation of this law.

Tennessee enacted the bill as state and congressional lawmakers placed more attention on forced organ harvesting, which, according to investigations from the independent London-based China Tribunal, happens on a large scale, targeting prisoners of conscience, such as detained practitioners of the faith group Falun Gong.

The spiritual practice had a following of somewhere between 70 million and 100 million by 1999 in China and has faced brutal persecution by the CCP that involves arbitrary arrests, lengthy imprisonment, forced labor, and other forms of abuse.

Texas, Utah, and Idaho have previously endorsed similar measures. In Congress, bills such as the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, the Falun Gong Protection Act, and the BLOCK Act seek to curb systematic abuse in China through sanctions and federal reimbursement.

The matter “should be a federal issue,” BLOCK Act’s lead sponsor, Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), told The Epoch Times. “But it’s not uncommon to see states act before the federal government acts, and sometimes they’re leading the way.”

He said that he was glad to see more action on the issue, which he said is “so bad nobody wants to talk about it.”

“This is tough, but somebody’s gotta do the tough things.”