You may have heard about the effort to allow seasonal wildland firefighters working for the federal government the opportunity to purchase health insurance. We covered it initially on May 24, and hopefully you signed the online petition like the other 120,000 have so far.
The issue is gaining more traction and wider coverage. The latest news organization to cover it was NBC News on Friday, as you can see in the video below which was filmed in South Dakota:
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As shown in the piece, the U.S. Forest Service is not showing any leadership on the issue:
Here’s an idea. The U.S. Forest Service, NPS, BLM, USF&WS, and BIA could address the issue and at least issue a position paper saying that YES, seasonal firefighters should be allowed to purchase health insurance. The administration frequently asks Congress to introduce and pass bills. This is a good time to do it again.
Add to the list 12,000 FEMA DAEs (who are “seasonals”) who work for USA w/o health insurance.
If the new Health Care Plan continues to go foward, the Federal Agencies will be in violation of the law if they don’t comply. Unless they opt out as the US Congress and Senate did when they passed the law in the first place.