Lawmakers Renew Debate Over Workers Comp Coverage For PTSD

HARTFORD, CT - Municipal officials told legislators Thursday that towns cannot afford the cost of legislation that would mandate workers’ compensation coverage for cops, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of witnessing a death.

Those same officials, added, that towns also have programs in place to handle post-traumatic stress and that the last thing needed now is another unfunded, costly mandate from a state that can’t get its own financial books in order.

It’s not the first year the bill has been raised and this year’s bill https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=SB00763&which_year=2017 is similar to ones introduced in the previous sessions.

Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary, a former police chief in Waterbury, told the committee: “I believe in post-traumatic stress disorder. There is no question about it.”

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