NAEMT
Question: If you died in the line of duty, would your family receive a federal benefit?
Answer: Only if you work for a governmental entity.
NAEMT believes that ALL EMS practitioners who die in the line of duty deserve the same benefits. Don’t you agree?
Congress established the Public Safety Officer Benefit (PSOB) program to provide a one-time financial benefit to eligible survivors of governmental public safety officers whose deaths are the direct result of a traumatic injury sustained in the line of duty.
In addition, disability benefits are provided to public safety officers who have been completely disabled in the line of duty by a catastrophic injury, if that injury prevents them from performing gainful work. The program does not cover non-governmental ambulance personnel.
As of October 1, 2008, the death benefit is $315,746. To expand this benefit based on an average of 12 line-of-duty deaths of non-governmental practitioners per year would cost approximately $3.79 million per year.
According to the National EMS Memorial Service, approximately 400 EMS practitioners have died in the line of duty since 1993, averaging 25 per year, with about half of those employed by non-governmental agencies.
We urge you to advocate for extending Public Safety Officer Benefits to all EMS practitioners. It’s easy to do.
Right now, two Congressional bills address the PSOB program: a Senate Bill, the Dale Long Emergency Medical Service Providers Protection Act, and a House Bill, the Nongovernmental Emergency Responder Family Protection Act. Neither bill currently extends the PSOB program to all EMS practitioners - but these bills provide a great opportunity for us to let our congressional leaders know what kind of legislation we want!
Please go to NAEMT’s Capwiz online advocacy service to send letters urging your Senators and House Representatives to co-sponsor these bills. It takes only minutes - all you need to do is enter your zip code and Capwiz determines your congressional representatives and provides you with a draft letter. It will then e-mail or fax it for you.
It couldn’t be easier to advocate on behalf of the families of ALL fallen EMS practitioners across the nation.
Contact your Congressional representatives today. Every letter counts!
Sincerely,
Pat
Patrick Moore
President, NAEMT