‘A public safety disaster’: Obamacare could force THOUSANDS of volunteer fire departments to close
The Affordable Care Act forces companies with more than 50 workers to buy them all health insurance or pay hefty fines
The IRS says volunteer firefighters are ’employees,’ even though the Department of Labor says they’re ‘volunteers’
Out of more than 1 million fire departments in the U.S., 87 per cent are staffed entirely or mostly by life-saving volunteers
Members of Congress are weighing in, but the Obama administration hasn’t taken any action yet to carve out a fire-fighting exception
By DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR
DailyMail.com
10 December 2013
Volunteer fire departments all across the U.S. could find themselves out of money and unable to operate unless Congress or the Obama Administration exempts them from the Affordable Care Act.
‘I thought the kinks were worked out of Obamacare at the first of the month,’ Central Florida volunteer firefighter Carl Fabrizi told Sunshine State News.
‘Man, oh, man, this could potentially destroy some real good companies in Florida.’
The U.S. Department of Labor takes the term ‘volunteer’ literally, but the IRS says volunteer firefighters are technically employees if they’re on the job more than 30 hours per week, making them subject to Obamacare’s employee-mandate rules.
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