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Healthcare bill for 9/11 First Responders passes – at long last

Posted on Dec 28, 2010

At last there is some good news for the 9/11 workers and residents still suffering health problems after the fall of the twin towers in 2001. After much stalling and negotiation, the bill was passed by a lame-duck Congress shortly before members left for the Christmas holidays.

The final version of the bill that passed was hashed out by the bills advocates Democratic New York Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Charles Schumer along with the bill’s opponents, Republican Senators Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

The version of the bill that was finally approved by both the House and the Senate will provide long-term comprehensive health-care program for workers and nearby residents sickened by toxic debris at Ground Zero. Provisions of the bill include five years of comprehensive coverage and a new victims-compensation program (the original program closed in 2003, before many long-term diseases like cancer showed up in workers and residents).

How was agreement finally reached? The following compromises played a big roll:

Total cost of the bill was reduced from $6.2 billion to $4.3 billion
Study to be done to determine if running the program through veterans hospitals would be better
Removed a proposed tax on foreign corporations
Imposed a fee on companies in some companies that trade with the US government overseas

Approval of the bill in the House was lawmakers’ last legislative act before leaving on break. Some credit comedian Jon Stewart with pushing lawmakers to stop stalling and approve the bill before the holidays.