Thousands of first responders who worked through the 9/11 terrorist attacks and have since experienced medical conditions could be out of healthcare due to a funding shortage.
The World Trade Center Health Program is experiencing financial shortfalls that have attracted the attention of Congress and activists alike, but so far, no solution has been found.
The initiative will be about $3 billion short sometime before 2025, John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation, said, according to Fox News.
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The program, which was established in 2011 as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, had its funding authorized through 2090 in 2015 but said the minds behind the planning did not account for inflation and the rise in healthcare costs.
“Congress has a responsibility to uphold our promises,” about a dozen Republican lawmakers wrote House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ). “We implore you not to turn a blind eye to the hardship 9/11 responders and survivors are facing and urge you to move this critical legislation forward without delay.”
The legislation and subsequent fund are intended to account for the healthcare costs for first responders who have dealt with health complications in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. The program currently covers the medical expenses associated with 68 different types of cancers, while as of June 2022, more than 80,000 first responders and nearly 35,000 survivors around the country were enrolled, according to Tablet.
“In 2015, there were 76,000 people in the World Trade Center Health Care Program. Now, there’s close to 118,000 people in the program,” Feal told Fox News. “Nobody took into consideration medical inflation.”
Feel said he had assurances from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that funding for the program will be included in the upcoming omnibus bill.
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Michael Barasch, a partner at Barasch & McGarry, a law firm that has represented first responders and survivors of 9/11, told Tablet, “If it does run out of money, that’ll mean fewer and fewer new patients getting access to this medical treatment.”
The bill, and the treatment of the 9/11 first responders, parallel the ongoing battle veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars face in improving their health care. President Joe Biden signed a massive VA overhaul bill last month, specifically to address the needs of the roughly 3.5 million soldiers who were exposed to toxic burn pits — commonly referred to as this generation’s Agent Orange.
