Seasonal firefighters ask to buy into federal health care coverage

They work the front lines of the nation’s most explosive wildfires, navigating treacherous terrain, dense walls of smoke and tall curtains of flame. Yet thousands of the nation’s seasonal firefighters have no health insurance for themselves or their families. Many firefighters are now asking to buy into a federal government health plan, largely out of anger over a colleague who was left with a $70,000 hospital bill after his son was born prematurely. Their request has been bolstered by more than 125,000 signatures gathered in an online petition during this year’s historic fire season in the West and the ongoing national debate over health care. Firefighters do get workers’ compensation if they are hurt on the job, but that doesn’t cover them in the offseason. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates firefighting efforts nationwide, says 15,000 wildland firefighters are on the federal payroll this year. Of that number, some 8,000 are classified as temporary seasonal employees, who work on a season-to-season basis with no guarantee of a job the following year and no access to federal benefits...more