Staff Reports
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, also the state’s Fire Marshal, Thursday applauded a Senate panel’s unanimous approval of a workers’ compensation insurance bill that could provide expanded benefits to first responders with job-related post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Last year, four states, including Texas, passed measures that give first responders the needed access to mental health benefits for first responders, with three of those states doing it through the workers’ compensation system,” he said in a statement. “This year we MUST add Florida to this list.”
The Senate bill (SB 376), carried by Democratic Sen. Lauren Book, now heads to the Senate floor.
Patronis had blasted the Florida League of Cities earlier this week after it opposed the House version (HB 227). He said the group was “attempting to derail” the legislation.
Because cities and counties in Florida employ almost all first responders, they will incur almost all of the costs of the benefit.
“Firefighters, for example, have a suicide attempt rate five times the general adult population. Suicide is not a solution,” Patronis said then.
The League later dropped its opposition after saying the House bill had been “tightened up.”
