Another Slap in the Face to EMS workers

[akflightmedic]

Death benefit for police, fire OK'd

By TOM FAHEY

State House Bureau Chief

Friday, Mar. 30, 2007

CONCORD – Michael's Law, which provides a death benefit for police and firefighters killed in the line of duty, passed the New Hampshire Senate yesterday on a unanimous vote.

The proposal, Senate Bill 169, now heads to the New Hampshire House, where a similar bill was killed this week.

The Senate bill is named for Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs, who was killed Oct. 16 while responding to a domestic violence report. His accused killer faces a capital murder charge, which carried a maximum penalty of execution.

SB 169 calls for a $100,000 death benefit to be paid to surviving family from an insurance policy the state will purchase. Current law provides a $20,000 benefit.

The bill dropped language that included emergency medical technicians for eligibility. Instead, it creates a study committee that would find a way to cover them, and will decide how to distinguish between public and private service EMTs.

The bill at one time was written to benefit Briggs' family, stating that anyone who died in the line of duty after Oct. 1, 2006 would be eligible.

The amended bill dropped a plan to get a death benefit from the New Hampshire Retirement System. The system is seriously underfunded, so a change was made to rely on insurance.

Prime sponsor Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester, said the state cannot purchase an insurance policy that takes effect retroactively.

Sen. Jack Barnes, R-Raymond, said that in its current form, "No one is eligible for it right now, and hopefully no one will ever be eligible for it." Sen. Peter Burling, D-Cornish, said he will work hard to make sure the EMT question is settled in committee.

The House killed a bill much like SB 169 this week. The main difference from the Senate version was that it included highway workers who are killed while working. House members disagreed on whether the bill should include EMTs, highway workers and others, or be limited to police and firefighters.

D'Allesandro said he thinks this bill, with its committee to continue studying the issue, will pass in the House.

[Eng542ine]

Ah, the joys of a system divided... between public and private employees...

I completely understand why the state would not want to provide a benefit to an employee of a non-governmental agency. If they wanted to do that, they could have easily included uniformed security guards employed by private companies or, members of a corporate fire brigade.

I would say that this falls back on the system with people on both sides of public/private employment... a house divided... We either need to ALL be government employees or ALL be ready to be treated as less than our police and fire counterparts.

[akflightmedic]

I do not know for sure as I am not familiar with this area, but I read another article that implied there were indeed some EMT workers that were not private. I agree if they are private EMS workers, the company that empoys them should provide any and all benefits. However, if they are government, they are entitled to the same benefit.

I think the controversy was over those govt EMTs being excluded because the language was changed to keep out the privates from receiving this benefit.

Correct me if my facts are wrong but this is what I understood the problem to be.

[Dustdevil]

So long as they don't pay the benefit to fire and police personnel who are killed while acting in an EMS capacity, I am fine with it.

If a car crashes into an accident scene and kills a medic and a firemonkey first responder, they should both get the benefit, or neither of them, but not just one.

[JCicco345]

EMS should definitely be included in the benefit. But i agree the private services should cover their own employees and the state should cover the public employees.

[Dustdevil]

EMS should definitely be included in the benefit. But i agree the private services should cover their own employees and the state should cover the public employees.

I disagree. The state should not be responsible for municipal and county employees any more than they should be for private employees.

What is this, Russia?

[tskstorm]

I disagree. The state should not be responsible for municipal and county employees any more than they should be for private employees.

What is this, Russia?

i'd be quite interested in an expansion of your thoughts on this issue.

[JCicco345]

Municipal employees work for the city/town and ultimately the state. If you are killed while doing your job that be covered by that bill. Firefighters and police officers work for the state and are covered why shouldn't EMS ?????? The reason they shouldn't cover private industry is that those people work for the company not the state. a for profit company in most cases. The companies are responsible in those instances.

[elvismedic]

In no way shape or form should public (your tax dollars) monies be made available to provide death benefits to the private sector. If the money is made available where do you put the limits? Private security, construction workers hired by town or state government to perform public works, state social service workers, and anyone else that provides service to the public?

I don't think that municple employees should have death benefits provided by tax dollars. Many municple employees have death benefits provided by the town government. Towns can obtain life insurance policies as a package deal and thus provide death benefits to their own employees with a modest cost to the employee.

[scope2776]

i think the main issue here is not whether private EMS or public EMS should get benefits, but that EMS was left out of the question because it was to difficult to appropriate the money and to whom. I agree that a house divided cannot stand. it disappoints me that we cannot offer a solid front on issues such as this, that our national committees and associations cannot use their leverage on this issue. EMS will probably always be the step-child of other agencies until we get our act together... and i don't want to rant to much on that because it's covered ad nauseam in other threads. Call me a commie, but i don't care who provides the benefits, municipal, state of federal and i don't care if private of public employees get the money, there should be something for our families if we die in the line of duty. And it should be equal to the other agencies.