The Alaska House advanced legislation Monday that expands occupational disability benefits beyond peace officers and firefighters to cover all public employees and teachers. The bill was held to the next day's calendar after drawing an objection.

The Finance Committee substitute for House Bill 210 increases the disability benefit rate from 40 percent to 75 percent of salary starting when an employee is approved for benefits by the Division of Retirement and Benefits. The measure also adds healthcare coverage for members approved for occupational disability.

Before the bill was held, the House rejected an amendment that would have loosened medical examination requirements for firefighters seeking workers' compensation benefits for work-related cancers and illnesses.

Representative Dan Saddler proposed the amendment on behalf of the Chugiak Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department and other volunteer fire departments statewide. The amendment would have reduced required medical examinations from annually over seven years to every other year over six years.

"This amendment falls squarely within the state of the impact and desired end of HB 210, the title Disability Benefits for Firefighters," Saddler said. "What the amendment does is it loosens that requirement marginally by requiring over six years examinations every other year."

Saddler said the costly annual examinations place a burden on volunteer fire departments that do not receive municipal revenue. Missing a single examination in seven years disqualifies firefighters from the presumption that certain cancers and respiratory illnesses are work-related. Current statute already provides for the presumption of work-related cancers and respiratory illnesses, Saddler noted. Breast cancer was added to the presumption statute a couple years ago.

Representative Justin Ruffridge supported the amendment, noting the diseases covered are already in state statute. "One of the issues that we see, especially with volunteer firefighting departments, as mentioned by the amendment sponsor, is that they have a significant cost that they have to go through in order to have their individuals that are covered under this disability component to be able to qualify for that disability," Ruffridge said.

Ruffridge said the amendment would extend the presumption period from five years to 10 years after employment ends. "Some of the things that firefighters are exposed to, similar to our men and women in military service, sometimes don't know the results of those things for quite some time," he said. Saddler said the Professional Firefighters Association supported the amendment and had suggested extending the presumption period further. He accommodated the request in part by extending it from five years to 10 years.