VIDEO: Iowa House lawmakers unanimously advanced a bill out of a public safety subcommittee on Tuesday that would expand health care benefits to full-time firefighters, police officers and emergency medical service providers. The bill requires public employers to provide benefits that include cancer screening examinations every three years of employment. The policy provides a $1 million appropriation for the state to pay for these screenings. The bill also expands the definition of cancer by striking the 14 cancer types covered for retired first responders by the state and adding a more generalized description. This will include more cancer diagnoses in the definition. This is something that first responder families have been asking for from Iowa lawmakers for years. “I can speak up for those yet to be diagnosed, I can speak up for my son,” said Kelly Stoaks, widow of former DMFD firefighter Brian Stoaks. Brian passed from pancreatic cancer several years back and was not one of the types of cancers where treatment would be covered by the state.
