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The politics of cancer

Workers comp bill goes way too far

Published January 28, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado's labor organizations, thwarted for years by Republicans in the legislature or governor's office, are trying to make up for lost time this session.

But they tend to overreach. The latest example is the firefighters' effort to get more cancer cases covered by workers comp.

It is at least theoretically possible now for firefighters to recover medical costs for cancer treatment, but the burden is on them to prove that the cancer is work-related. That's not easy, of course, since so little is known about how most cancers are contracted.

House Bill 1008 would stand the law on its head. It says that most cancers that afflict firefighters after five years on the job "shall be presumed to result" from their employment.

Employers would have to show "by clear and convincing medical evidence" that the cancer was not job related.

There are a couple of caveats. Firefighters would have to undergo a physical exam upon employment allegedly to show they are cancer-free. And lung cancer - which overwhelming evidence indicates is usually caused by smoking - is not covered. The covered cancers would have to afflict the brain, skin, digestive system, blood or genitourinary system.

An employee seeking workers comp coverage almost always has to show his injury happened on the job. It's not usually a problem. When a roofer breaks his back falling off the roof, that's work-related.

The only illness that even partially reverses the burden of proof in workers comp cases is hepatitis C when contracted by emergency workers like paramedics, police officers and firefighters. If they suffer a skin puncture when treating bloody injuries, and they later come down with hep C, they are presumed to have gotten it on the job. But they do have to take a test right after the incident to prove they were clear at the time. That's not unreasonable, but much more is known about how hepatitis is contracted than cancer.

By the way, the bill makes no distinction between paid and volunteer firefighters. All would be covered.

HB 1008 would increase the cost of workers comp insurance purchased by the municipalities and special districts that employ firefighters. By how much is hard to figure, since there are few up-to-date studies on cancer rates among firefighters. But whatever the cost is, it will be passed on to taxpayers.

If this bill passes, what trade will be next to seek a reversal of the burden of proof when it comes to cancer? House painters? Carpenters? Plumbers?

HB 1008, scheduled for debate Thursday in committee, deserves an early death. The law ain't broken; don't fix it.