VIDEO: All session long firefighters from all across the state were advocating for lawmakers to expand a definition of ‘cancer’ for medical coverage for Iowa’s first responders.
“Over the last five years we have seen a huge uptick in it an we probably had a in the neighborhood of 15 to 16 of our guys diagnosed with cancer. Some of those guys have gone off the job, some of them have had some real success with treatments and those kinds of things,” said Joe Van Haalen, the president of Des Moines Firefighter Local 4, and a Captain with DMFD. “But in the last year we just saw, it was like bang, bang, bang.”
In late August of 2023, firefighter Brian Stoaks died of pancreatic cancer and in January of this year firefighter Mike Broderick died of Stage 4 liver cancer. Those two types are not covered under current state code. You can see the 14 cancer diagnoses that are covered on the statehouse website.