A group of lawmakers has proposed an amendment to the Affordable Care Act that would exempt volunteer firefighters and paramedics from a loophole that threatens to close stations, reports The Daily Mail.
The Affordable Care Act was enacted without an exemption for volunteer first-responders, potentially forcing fire departments to buy coverage for hundreds of thousands of volunteers even though they’re not on any payroll.
The result could have put most of America’s 1 million fire departments in a position of diverting equipment and training funds to pay for insurance policies or federal government fines. Thousands could face closure because of the added costs.
New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins wrote to IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel last week, calling the result ‘a public safety disaster.’
Their ‘Protect Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act’ would amend the Affordable Care Act to provide volunteer emergency service workers a carve-out ensuring that they’re not counted toward employee totals that would trigger the law’s employer mandate.
Eighty-seven per cent of U.S. fire departments are entirely or ‘mostly’ staffed by volunteers, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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