After hearing emotional testimony from Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, an Illinois House committee unanimously approved legislation Thursday that would grant Chicago cops and firefighters full benefits if they become disabled from COVID-19.
Mendoza is pushing for the measure because her brother, a Chicago police detective who lost his kidneys due to a coronavirus infection in late 2020, was denied “duty disability” benefits that would have provided him with 75% of his salary and free health care.
Instead, he was granted only “ordinary benefits,” which paid him 50% of his salary and provided no health insurance.
The city of Chicago police pension board decided that Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza didn’t prove he’d gotten the disease through a particular “act of duty” though the board’s own doctor said he likely was infected on the job.