9/11 health care fund once again running out of money
NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are once again pressuring lawmakers to fully fund their health care.
Congress intended to resolve the recurring issue back 2019, but the number of people registered with the 9/11 health care fund has ballooned, as has the cost of new state-of-the-art cancer drugs, and inflation is not helping things.
A stopgap funding measure was passed last year.
“We were told it was safe,” recalled Jill Goodkind. “When we came back to our apartment we were told clean it up yourself. We did not have HEPA equipment.”
Goodkind still remembers coming home with her husband, Tom, to their building in the shadow of ground zero. Within a few years, friends and neighbors started to get sick.
“In our complex, on one floor alone, four women got breast cancer,” Goodkind said.
Tom, a Grammy award-winning musician, died after a long battle with stomach cancer in 2019. He passed just as Congress replenished the 9/11 health fund for what everyone hoped would be the last time.
“We had no idea how many more people would need funding from the World Trade Center Healthcare Program, and it was only five years ago, the numbers have increased exponentially and unexpected,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, who now represents the area around ground zero in Lower Manhattan.
The Democrat is hopeful as we approach 23 years since the terror attacks, the fund can once again be replenished — for good this time — to support the 130,000 people now registered for health care benefits. The figure includes thousands of first responders.
“This is something we expect legislators to pay attention to, and not let fall by the wayside in this very hectic election season,” said Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Firefighters gathered Monday to keep the pressure on lawmakers in Washington. They said New York’s Bravest are still dying from 9/11 illnesses — 28 more since last year.
In total, 713 firefighters have paid the ultimate price, either on 9/11 or in the years following.
Both the congressman and firefighters do not anticipate this funding coming in the current budget battle playing out in Washington. However, there is some hope that just after the election everyone will come together to finally fully fund this important health care.