The bill, H.197, makes it easier for first responders to get workers compensation treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and requires all workers compensation insurance to cover mental health disorders that occur on the job.
The bill passed on a voice vote on Friday.
The bill would give Vermont the strongest protection in the country for first responders who develop PTSD, according to Bradley Reed, the president of the Professional Firefighters in Vermont, which lobbied for the bill.
Reed said that’s because H.197’s presumption that a first responder developed PTSD on the job is the first such distinction in the nation. Additionally, he said he is only aware of two states—Oregon and Maine—where workers compensation covers mental health injuries.
The final vote to pass the bill on Friday came after a four-hour-long debate, which included five separate floor amendments, multiple complaints of representatives being out of order, and a threat from Republicans to walk off the floor when several of them did not get back to the floor in time for a vote.
Republicans almost walked out when they complained that they did not have ample opportunity to debate an amendment to exempt first responders working for ski patrols at ski resorts. That amendment was offered by Rep. Adam Greshin, I-Warren, a co-owner of Sugarbush Resort.
Greshin told lawmakers that he had a financial interest in exempting ski patrol workers. But he said ski resorts are in a different category because they are recreation companies, not rescue squads.
“I work for a ski resort, and I’m a co-owner of a ski resort, and I think it’s important for people to know that I’m talking about something that has a financial interest to me,” Greshin said.
“(Ski resorts) are the only private sector employers that I could think of that have first responders on staff as part of a regular part of their business,” he said. “I tried to make this as narrow as possible to make sure, as some people have brought up, let’s make sure we’re not carving out a thing here and a thing there.”
Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, D-Bradford, the lead sponsor of the bill, said the House Health Care Committee disagreed with exempting ski patrol workers at ski resorts from being covered for PTSD.
“Those of us who have spent time on a ski mountain (know that) there can be pretty horrific injuries that can occur on a ski mountain when somebody loses control or hits a tree or a lift expansion,” Copeland-Hanzas said.
She said the goal of the bill is to promote parity between physical injuries and mental injuries. “Carving out and saying that your injuries are different to folks who respond to emergencies on skis as opposed to driving a vehicle and getting out on foot” does not promote parity, she said.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, gave Republicans a 15-minute recess to hold a caucus to discuss the amendment. Johnson then reconvened the House more than 20 minutes later, but some Republicans had not returned to the floor. Johnson held the vote, and the amendment failed.
When members of the Republican caucus complained that they had not been included, Johnson granted them another recess to hold a caucus, attended the caucus to personally apologize, and agreed to hold a re-vote on Greshin’s amendment. The amendment then failed for a second time.
Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, was another major opponent of the bill. She argued that the bill would cost an unknown amount of money and therefore raise property taxes. She said parts of it should be delayed until lawmakers know how much it will cost.
“I think we need to take accountability for the changes hat we make,” Browning said. “If you vote against this amendment, you are voting to put a cost burden of unknown magnitude on the property tax. “
Browning proposed four amendments, which all failed.
Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, a mental health advocate, compared the bill and the arguments being made to the Legislature’s experience in 1997 when they passed mental health parity law for health insurers.
“I think often fears about something that seems to be new are based on an underlying lack of knowledge, in this case about how mental health is integrated and the same as within the rest of health care,” Donahue said.
She said that over time, those concerns become discrimination. She said Browning argued in the House Health Care Committee that the bill would “clog the system for those who need the care.”
“The same issue was here, and the same fears were being raised, 20 years ago—that I didn’t really need that hospital care, that I was clogging the health care system,” Donahue said.
Browning quickly took offense to Donahue’s comments and read from a letter from insurance companies that she was referencing when she used the term “clog the system.” The letter said increasing reasons to make workers compensation claims could increase the number of people making bogus claims and therefore “clog the system,” she said.
Donahue also argued against Browning’s amendment that would have created a new funding stream to help towns pay for expenses associated with workers compensation for mental health. Browning said that would help relieve the burden on property taxes.
“This amendment says that a separate funding stream for treatment of mental health injuries is acceptable,” Donahue said. “We learned a long time ago that separate but equal is always separate, never equal.”
The bill now moves over to the Senate, where leadership has said they will take up the bill.
