After many years of work at the State legislative  level, and several unsuccessful attempts at a presumptive cancer coverage law, in 2021 the Missouri Fire Service Alliance was able to guide passage of Senate Bill 45, enabling creation of a fire fighter’s cancer benefits pool in the state.

Among other provisions, the law allowed for the formation of the Missouri Fire Fighters Critical Illness Trust (mffcip.org), which is now up and running, and further seeded the Trust with an initial grant of funds to jump start the process. For the long term, the Trust will be funded by contributions from individual departments that choose to participate. Currently, 17 different types of cancer are covered by the program.

Cancer in the fire service is a personal matter to me, and I am honored to have assisted with the formation and ongoing of the MFFCIP. I believe this Trust will be a game changer for Missouri fire fighters, and may even provide a template for other states to move forward with a presumptive coverage mechanism when they have previously remained hesitant to cover their fire fighters.

Check out the latest press release here: https://www.mffcip.org/missouri-finds-solution-to-firefighter-cancer-with-fire-fighters-critical-illness-pool/