Testimony on cancer presumption

Today the House Labor committee held testimony on HB 4473, this session's cancer presumption bill. Naturally the League is opposed to legislation that would increase the cost of workers compensation insurance dramatically. I was the lone testifier in opposition because you can imagine it's not fun testimony to give in a room full of uniformed firefighters. Despite that, we felt this issue was too important to leave to written testimony. This isn't about communities vs. firefighters (although it's framed that way by bill proponents because it makes a much sexier story.) This is simply about increasing the cost of workers compensation insurance to the point where it's unaffordable or even unavailable. We've tossed out lots of suggestions, like asking the state to pay for it, requiring that it apply only to active firefighters, requiring that firefighters be covered by health insurance, requiring pre-screening, etc. Contact your legislators and let them know that using the workers compensation system for this is just too expensive!