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Public safety
officers (fire fighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency
medical personnel) retire earlier than their peers in other
occupations, and are generally many years away from being able to
participate in Medicare. Since they often lose employer-provided
health insurance when they retire, they are forced to spend their
retirement money on health insurance premiums.
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Public safety
officers often face significant health care needs as a result of a
career responding to emergencies in hazardous and stressful
environments.
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Although some
jurisdictions offer retirees the option to remain in the
employer-provided health plan, retirees are generally required to
pay all or most of the premiums. Whether the retirees retain their
employer-provided insurance or seek another insurance carrier, they
face steep costs over many years. It is not uncommon for retired
public safety officers to spend 80 percent of their pension checks
on health insurance.
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The average fire
fighter pension is approximately $23,000 a year. If a fire fighter
uses most of it to pay for health insurance, he or she is left with
very little to make ends meet.
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The HELPS Retirees
Act would provide a modest benefit to help retired public safety
officers afford health insurance. The legislation would allow
retirees to designate up to $5,000 from their pension funds to be
used for health premiums without paying taxes on these funds.
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The money being used
for the health premiums will not come from tax dollars. All the
money will come directly from the retiree’s personal retirement
funds.
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The proposal does
not create new health care programs or provide public safety
officers access to any health care options they don’t already have.
It simply makes existing options more affordable by shielding
legitimate premium expenses from taxation.
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The administration’s
budget proposal includes more than $150 billion for tax-based
initiatives to help reduce the number of uninsured people. The cost
of the HELPS Retirees Act would be a tiny fraction of that amount.
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The nation’s fire
fighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel spend
their entire careers risking their lives to protect the lives and
property of Americans. In recognition of their service, they should
be afforded a small measure of protection against exorbitant health
care costs in their retirement years.
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Proposals that
expand access to health insurance save federal dollars in the long
run by reducing costs associated with providing health care for the
uninsured.
