Local firefighter pushing to protect colleagues
'He was a fourth-generation firefighter. So, obviously, his dad was involved, grandfather, great-grandfather — so I've been around it my whole life,' Gossard said.
But Gossard said it was truly Chuck's passion. He served for 33 years at the firehouse in Petersburg.
'Anytime the tones for the bells dropped, he was going. He left birthday parties and events, but this was his pride and soul,' Gossard said.
Chuck died three years ago this month, just six months after being diagnosed with melanoma. It's something Gossard said was caused by decades of exposure to toxic fumes and smoke fighting fires. Gossard is now among a growing number of first responders pushing for new federal regulations to help surviving family members.
'Right now, it's only state to state through workers comp, so there are some families out there that aren't getting any benefits,' Gossard said.
House Bill 1719 was introduced in the last session of Congress and had the support of Valley lawmaker Michael Rulli, but it never passed. The measure will now have to be re-introduced if it's ever to become law.
'There's a lot of pushing on the back end. There's a union for the professional firefighters, the IAFF, they're really involved with that,' Gossard said.
In the meantime, Gossard said the community can show its support by sending letters to lawmakers urging them to take action.
'Cancer was the leading cause of death for firefighters — it's 73% of the deaths are occupational cancers. It's just getting worse and worse,' Gossard said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Health Line
2 hours ago
- Health Line
6 Ways Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Could Limit Healthcare Access
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It calls for a reduction in funding for food assistance programs and rural hospitals, as well as reduced funding for Planned Parenthood services, which have been temporarily blocked by a federal judge. Some of these impacts will take years to be felt. Other provisions, however, could directly affect people's lives in the next year or two. 'It is the biggest cut to our social safety net in history,' Liz Fowler, PhD, a distinguished scholar in Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said in a news release from the college. Here's a look at six key areas affected by spending reductions outlined in President Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' Medicaid bears the brunt of the cuts Federal funding for Medicaid is expected to be reduced by more than $790 billion over the next decade. More than 70 million people currently receive Medicaid benefits, but various factors could significantly reduce this estimate. Work requirements will mandate that most 'able-bodied' recipients between the ages of 19 and 64 will be required to work, receive work training, volunteer, or be in school for at least 80 hours per month while receiving benefits. The new work requirements take effect on January 1, 2027. As many as 5 million people could lose health insurance due to this requirement, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). More frequent eligibility checks will require states to verify beneficiaries' eligibility for Medicaid more often, causing some recipients to be removed from the program. Immigration restrictions will reduce the number of foreign-born residents receiving benefits. The cuts may also affect hospitals, as Medicaid is responsible for 20% of revenue at these medical facilities nationwide. Experts also point out that people who are no longer on Medicaid will not seek preventive care and end up in hospital emergency rooms due to more serious medical issues. 'Cutting Medicaid means millions lose access to basic care, leading to sicker patients, overwhelmed ERs, and rising costs for everyone,' said Kanwar Kelley, MD, a specialist in otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, obesity medicine, and lifestyle medicine as well as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Side Health. 'Lack of access to preventive care leads to a sicker population, which leads to more medical expenses,' Kelley told Healthline. Impacts to Medicare Medicare is a federal program founded in 1965 that provides health insurance coverage to people 65 years and older. About 66 million Americans are enrolled. Trump's bill does not directly mention Medicare cuts, but there are measures that could impact recipients. Under a 2010 budget mechanism law known as PAYGO, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the Trump bill could trigger more than $500 billion in Medicare cuts between 2026 and 2034, KFF reports. The Center for Medicare Advocacy notes the bill will also reduce the number of people eligible for Medicare. They say some non-citizens who meet Medicare eligibility requirements through work history or residency length will no longer be covered. In addition, the bill imposes a nine-year ban on implementing improvements to Medicare Savings Programs that help lower-income Medicare beneficiaries pay for premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Older adults who are enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare could hit with a double impact. 'The [bill] will affect this [older] age range by reducing access to care,' Kelley said. 'Creating restrictions based on work requirements and new regulations for exemptions will exclude many in this age group from qualifying. Those in this age range will have a harder time re-entering the workforce to continue their coverage.' Fewer people enrolled in Obamacare The bill will make it more difficult for people to join or remain in programs offered by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. This difficulty will be due to several changes. They include: Requiring enrollees to update their information regularly. This may include updating income, immigration status, and other details each year. Requiring individuals to manually reenroll every year during open enrollment. Last year, 10 million people were automatically reenrolled. Shortening the open enrollment period by a month. That period will now end on December 15 rather than January 15. For the current plan year, 40% of people signed up after December 15. Some immigrants will also no longer be eligible for ACA coverage. In addition, financial assistance that helps people afford insurance in ACA marketplaces will be allowed to expire at the end of this year. The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University predicts these changes will cause ACA premiums to rise by 75% next year. Kelley agrees that premiums will likely go up, causing a cascade of events. 'Removing or cutting these subsidies will lead to more expensive plans offered on the marketplace. By raising these prices, many will choose to live without health insurance and risk catastrophic medical debt,' he said. 'Making access to healthcare harder for individuals creates gaps in care for patients, which is crucial in screening for life-altering illnesses.' Strains on rural hospitals The bill does provide rural hospitals with $50 billion over the next five years to help reduce the effects from the cuts in Medicaid spending. However, the Center for American Progress reports that funding will not be nearly enough to make up the difference. The organization states that slightly more than 2,000 rural hospitals receive $12 billion per year in net revenue from Medicaid. At some rural hospitals, Medicaid represents 40–50% of their revenue. The organization added that children, non-elderly adults, and people with disabilities would be the people in rural areas most affected. Kelley agreed that the effects could be far-reaching. 'This loss of funding will hit rural hospitals hard, leading to closures and increasing healthcare disparities in marginalized neighborhoods,' he said. The Center for American Progress also notes that rural hospitals have low operating margins. They project that more than 300 rural hospitals could be at risk of closure. 'Rural communities already face challenges with adequate staffing and medically necessary equipment as they usually operate on tight margins with the subsidies,' Kelley said. 'Reducing the number of providers will lead to closures, which forces those in the community to travel farther for their regular and emergency care.' Fewer families will receive food assistance The bill would cut $120 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade, according to estimates. About 40 million people currently receive assistance from the SNAP program. The League of Women Voters projects the cuts could impact 22 million families. Kelley said the impact is beyond just food. 'Food insecurity leads to bad health outcomes,' he said. 'Cutting programs directed at addressing hunger will lead to increased rates of obesity, diabetes, and poor nutrition in kids.' 'Hunger in children leads to poor educational outcomes. Cutting SNAP and other food programs will lead to children going to school hungry, seniors skipping meals, and families making decisions between food and other necessities, including health,' Kelley added. Cuts to Planned Parenthood The bill impacts Planned Parenthood operations by banning people from using Medicaid at healthcare non-profit facilities that provide abortion services outside of cases of rape, incest, or when the pregnant person's life is in danger. Planned Parenthood estimates that the new law could close nearly 200 of its facilities. About 60% of those centers are in medically underserved communities. In addition, the organization states that more than 1 million people could lose access to afford healthcare services such as STI testing and birth control. Miller Morris, MA, MPH, is a women's health researcher and founder of Comma, a service focusing on menstrual health. She notes that a court injunction has temporarily blocked the bill's ban on Medicaid use at reproductive health clinics like Planned Parenthood. However, she said if the provisions are eventually upheld, they could have far-ranging effects. 'If the court's injunction were to be lifted, the defunding of Planned Parenthood would mean fewer resources for all the preventative and primary care services they offer, leading to reduced access for millions of women, especially those in low-income and rural communities,' Morris told Healthline. 'This reduction in Medicaid funding will see catastrophic consequences for the millions of women who rely on Planned Parenthood and similar low-cost organizations for vital, life saving care,' she added.
Miami Herald
7 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Why young Americans dread turning 26 as they face health insurance chaos
Amid the challenges of adulthood, one rite of passage is unique to the United States: the need to find your own health insurance by the time you turn 26. That is the age at which the Affordable Care Act declares that young adults generally must get off their family's plan and figure out their coverage themselves. When the ACA was voted into law in 2010, what's known as its dependent coverage expansion was immediately effective, guaranteeing health insurance to millions of young Americans up to age 26 who would otherwise not have had coverage. But for years, Republicans have whittled away at the infrastructure of the original ACA. Long gone is the requirement to buy insurance. Plans sold in the ACA's online insurance marketplaces have no stringent quality standards. Costs keep rising, and eligibility requirements and subsidies are moving targets. The erosion of the law has now created an 'insurance cliff' for Americans who are turning 26 and don't have a job that provides medical coverage. Some, scared off by the complexity of picking a policy and by the price tags, tumble over the edge and go without insurance in a health system where the rate for an emergency room visit can be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars. Today, an estimated 15% of 26-year-olds go uninsured, which, according to a KFF analysis, is the highest rate among Americans of any age. If they qualify, young adults can sign up for Medicaid, the federal-state program for Americans with low incomes or disabilities, in most but not all states. Otherwise, many buy cheap subpar insurance that leaves them with insurmountable debt following a medical crisis. Others choose plans with extremely limited networks, losing access to longtime doctors and medicines. They often find those policies online, in what has become a dizzyingly complicated system of government-regulated insurance marketplaces created by the ACA. The marketplaces vary in quality from state to state; some are far better than others. But they generally offer few easily identifiable, affordable, and workable choices. 'The good news is that the ACA gave young people more options,' said Karen Pollitz, who directed consumer information and insurance oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration. 'The bad news is the good stuff is hidden in a minefield of really bad options that'll leave you broke if you get sick.' Publicly funded counselors called 'navigators' or 'assisters' can help insurance seekers choose a plan. But those programs vary by state, and often customers don't realize that the help is available. The Trump administration has cut funding to publicize and operate those navigator programs. In addition, changes to Medicaid eligibility in the policy bill recently passed by Congress could mean that millions more ACA enrollees lose their insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Those changes threaten the very viability of the ACA marketplaces, which currently provide insurance to 24 million Americans. In dozens of interviews, young adults described the unsettling and devastating consequences of having inadequate insurance, or no insurance at all. Damian Phillips, 26, a reporter at a West Virginia newspaper, considered joining the Navy to get insurance as his 26th birthday approached. Instead, he felt he 'didn't make enough to justify having health insurance' and has reluctantly gone without it. Ethan Evans, a 27-year-old aspiring actor in Chicago who works in retail, fell off his parents' plan and temporarily signed up for Medicaid. But the diminished mental health coverage meant cutting back on visits to his longtime therapist. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat and the first Gen Z member of Congress, was able to quit his job and run for office at 25 only because he could stay on his mother's plan until he turned 26, he said. Now 28, he is insured through his federal job. 'The ACA was groundbreaking legislation, including the idea that every American needs health care,' he said. 'But there are pitfalls, and one of them is that when young adults turn 26, they fall into this abyss.' Back in 2010, the decision to make 26 the cutoff age for staying on a parent's insurance was 'kind of arbitrary,' recalled Nancy-Ann DeParle, deputy chief of staff for policy in the Obama White House. 'My kids were young , and I was trying to imagine when my child would be an adult.' Before that time, children were often kicked off family plans at much younger ages, typically 18. The Obama administration's idea was that young adults were most likely settling into careers and jobs with insurance by 26. If they still didn't have access to job-based insurance, Medicaid and the ACA marketplaces would offer alternatives, the thinking went. But over the years, the courts, Congress, and the first Trump administration eviscerated provisions of the ACA. By 2022, a shopper on a federal government-run marketplace had more than 100 choices, many of which included expensive trade-offs, presented in a way that made comparisons difficult without spreadsheets. Jack Galanty, 26, a freelance designer in Los Angeles, tried to plan for his 26th birthday by seeking coverage on the California insurance marketplace that would ensure treatment for his mild cerebral palsy and for HIV prevention. 'You're scrolling for what feels like years, looking at 450 little slides, at the little bars, and trying to remember, 'Was the one I liked No. 12 or 13?'' he recalled. 'It feels like it's nearly impossible to make a good choice in this scenario.' Out-of-pocket expenses have soared. Complex plans in the lightly regulated marketplaces featured rising premiums, high deductibles, and requirements that patients pay a significant portion of the cost of care, often 20% — a charge known as coinsurance. More than half of Americans ages 18 to 29 have incurred medical debt in the past five years, a KFF Health News data investigation found. Few have the reserves to pay it off. The networks of doctors to choose from in these plans are often so limited that an insured person struggles to get timely appointments. It can even be hard to find the official websites amid an explosion of look-alikes operated by commercial brokers. Sharing her contact information with one site that appeared legitimate left Lydia Herne, a social media producer in Brooklyn, 'drowning' in texts and phone calls offering plans of uncertain and unregulated quality. 'It never ends,' said Herne, 27. Young Invincibles, an advocacy group representing young adults, runs its own 'navigator' program to help young people choose health insurance plans. 'We hear the frustration,' said Martha Sanchez, the group's former director of health policy and advocacy. 'Twenty-six-year-olds have had negative experiences in a process that's become really complex. Many throw up their hands.' Elizabeth Mathis, 29, and Evan Pack, 30, a married couple in Salt Lake City, turned to the marketplaces two years ago, after Pack went uninsured for a 'really scary' year after he turned 26. 'Every time he got in the car, I thought, 'What if?'' Mathis said. The couple pays more than $200 a month for a high-deductible health plan backed by a federal subsidy (the kind set to expire next year). It's a significant expense, but they wanted to be sure they had access to contraception and an antidepressant. But last year, Pack suffered serious eye problems and underwent an emergency appendectomy. Their plan left them $9,000 in debt, for medical care billed at over $20,000. 'Technically, we gambled in the right direction,' Mathis said. 'But I don't feel like we've won.' The ACA was supposed to help consumers find affordable, high-quality plans online. The legislation also tried to expand Medicaid programs, which are administered by states, to provide health insurance to low-income Americans. But the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid. Ten states, led mostly by Republicans, have not done so, leaving up to 1.5 million Americans, who could have qualified for coverage, without insurance. Even where Medicaid is available to 26-year-olds, the transition has often proved precarious. Madeline Nelkin of New Jersey, who was studying social work, applied for Medicaid coverage before her 26th birthday in April 2024 because her university's insurance premiums were more than $5,000 annually. But it was September before her Medicaid coverage kicked in, leaving her uninsured while she fought a chest infection over the summer. 'People tell you to think ahead, but I didn't think that meant six months,' she said. When Megan Hughes, 27, of Hartland, Maine, hit the cliff, she went without. An aide for children with developmental delays, she has a thyroid condition and polycystic ovary syndrome. She looked for a health care plan but found it hard to understand the marketplace. (She didn't know there were navigators who could help.) Now she can't afford her medicine or see her endocrinologist. 'I'm tired all the time,' Hughes said. 'My cycles are not regular anymore at all. When I do get one, it's debilitating.' She is hoping a new job will provide insurance later this year. Traditionally, most Americans with private health insurance got it through their jobs. But the job market has changed dramatically since the ACA became law, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, with the rise of a gig economy. Over 30% of people ages 18 to 29 said in recent surveys that they were working or have worked in short-term, part-time, or irregular jobs. The ACA requires organizations with 50 or more employees to offer insurance to people working 30 hours per week. This has led to a growing number of contract employees who work up to, but not past, the hourly limit. Many companies, which say they can't afford the rising costs of traditional insurance, offer their employees only a modicum of help, perhaps around $200 per month toward buying a marketplace plan, or a bare-bones company plan. Young people juggling part-time jobs and insurance options face bumpy, daunting transitions. In Oklahoma, Daisy Creager, 29, has had three employers over the past three years. Insurance was important to her, not least because her former husband had Type 1 diabetes. As she left the first of those jobs, her husband's endocrinologist helped the couple stockpile less expensive insulin from Canada, since they would be uninsured. After a few months, they bought a marketplace plan, but it was expensive and 'didn't cover a lot,' she said. When she found a new job, she dropped that plan, only to discover that her new insurance coverage didn't start until the end of her first month of employment. The couple would be uninsured for a few weeks. A few days later, she came home to find her husband unconscious on the floor, in a diabetic coma. After hovering near death in an intensive care unit for four days, he woke up and began to recover. 'I think I've done everything right,' Creager said. 'So why am I in a position where the health insurance available to me doesn't cover what I need, or I can barely afford my premiums, or worse, at times I don't even have it?' Kathryn Russell, 27, developed excruciating back pain two months before her 26th birthday. After extensive testing, doctors determined she needed a complex surgery, which her surgeon couldn't schedule until after she would be off her family's insurance plan. Forget the pain and the fear of the operation, she said, it was insurance that kept her up at night. 'There's this impending terror of, 'What am I going to do?'' she recalled. (One day before she turned 26, her father's company agreed to keep her on his plan for six more months, if he paid higher premiums.) The idea that the ACA would offer a variety of good options for people turning 26 has not worked as well as the legislation's authors had hoped. The 'job lock' tying insurance to employment has long plagued the United States workforce. Young adults need guidance on their options beforehand, said Sanchez of Young Invincibles. None of those interviewed for this story, for example, knew there were navigators to help them find insurance on the online marketplaces. Experts agree that the marketplaces need stronger regulation. In 2023, the federal government defined clearer standards for what plans in each tier of insurance should offer, such as better prescription drug benefits, defined copays for X-rays, or coverage for emergency room visits. Certain types of basic care, such as primary care, should require just a small copay for at least a small number of initial visits. Each insurer must offer at least one plan that complies with these new standards for every level, known as an 'easy pricing' option or a 'standard plan.' Most plans on the marketplaces don't meet these criteria. Federal and state regulators had long planned to cull such 'noncompliant' plans, gradually — fearing that doing so too quickly would scare insurers away from participating. But with the priorities of the new Trump administration now in focus, and a Republican majority in Congress, it's far from clear what course President Donald Trump, who sought to repeal the ACA outright in his first term, will take. There are hints: Subsidies to help Americans buy insurance, adopted during the Biden administration, are set to expire at the end of 2025 unless the Republican-led Congress extends them. If the subsidies expire, premiums are likely to rise sharply for plans sold on the marketplaces, leaving insurance out of reach for many more young adults. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
USA Today
14 hours ago
- USA Today
I rely on Medicaid to live. Trump's cuts make survival a privilege instead of a right.
When Congress cuts Medicaid, they aren't just targeting a program. They're threatening our ability to live, to care and to be cared for. I wake up every morning unsure if someone will be there to help me out of bed. That's the reality for many disabled people like me who rely on Medicaid. It's the program that allows me to live on my own terms – to work, create and contribute. But every year, my future is reduced to a line item politicians can vote on. The system was already failing us before these recent cuts. Getting enough hours felt like a battle. Navigating paperwork was a full-time job. The support I needed was out of reach – offered in theory, withheld in practice. My caregivers have other jobs and families. Coordinating support feels like solving a puzzle that keeps changing. When I can't make it work, I miss out. I cancel plans, skip opportunities, stay home. Not because I'm disabled, but because the system makes participation impossible. We recently marked two anniversaries: 35 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law and 60 years since Medicaid was created. These were meant to be moments of celebration. Instead, I spent those days at a 60-hour vigil outside the Capitol, protesting the Medicaid cuts buried inside what the Trump administration calls 'One Big Beautiful Bill.' I sat sweating in my wheelchair while they celebrated the ADA, honoring disability rights while gutting the program that makes those rights real. Trump's hollow gestures mask brutal cuts for people with disabilities The symbolism was hollow. The reality was brutal. Medicaid pays the caregivers who help me eat, bathe and start my day. Without that funding, that care disappears – and so do the jobs that provide it. Opinion: Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill victory tour hits major bump – voters hate it I've had a disability – muscular dystrophy – my entire life, and have relied on Medicaid throughout my adulthood. The former shaped my identity with pride. The latter turned my existence into a negotiation, where my needs are measured against cost and my future hinges on someone else's math and stock prices. In 2020, I moved out on my own during the COVID-19 pandemic and asked for more caregiving hours. I was denied. I appealed to my Medicaid provider but was ultimately rejected again, essentially because I was 'not disabled enough.' That's what it's like to live in a system where your basic needs are judged by people who don't understand your life. Millions of families are in the same impossible position – forced to choose between caregiving and working, between paying for help and paying rent. The wages are low and the hours are unpredictable. Without stability, how do you build a life? One of the harshest provisions, part of nearly $1 trillion in cuts, would force people with lifelong disabilities to reverify their Medicaid eligibility every six months – as if conditions like muscular dystrophy might just disappear. This isn't about fraud prevention. It's about making the process so exhausting that people give up or get left behind. Two years ago, my Medicaid office lost a form. They said I never submitted it and ended my coverage. I had to start over, submitting more than 400 pages of documents. I went two months without insurance or caregiving. It was terrifying. And this bill could make that nightmare the norm. Medicaid cuts will make care a luxury for Americans with disabilities The agenda behind these cuts reflects a cruel belief: that people like me are expendable. That our care is a luxury. That billionaires deserve tax breaks more than I deserve to go to the bathroom more than twice a day. But I've seen what's possible when we invest in care. I helped pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New Jersey because I know how essential care work is – and how deeply undervalued it remains. I've lost caregivers not because they didn't care, but because they couldn't afford to stay. Your Turn: Medicaid handouts only create dependency. Able-bodied adults should work. | Opinion Forum Medicaid makes life possible. It funds home and community-based care not just for disabled people but also for older adults, parents and caregivers across the country. When Congress cuts Medicaid, they aren't just targeting a program. They're threatening our ability to live, to care and to be cared for. And here's the truth: You don't have to be disabled to need Medicaid. One accident, one diagnosis, one lost job – that's all it takes. When I couldn't get the care I needed, my best friend Zack stepped in. He crashed on my couch for months to make sure I was safe and fed. He did it out of love. But no one should have to rely on a friend to survive. We need more than speeches. We need leaders who see disabled people as human beings. We need a Medicaid system that doesn't just help us survive but lets us thrive. So don't just celebrate the ADA. Don't just mark Medicaid's anniversary. Show us that our lives matter. Protect the programs that give us independence, dignity and joy. From where I sit, holding tight to the care that keeps me alive, this bill isn't beautiful. It's a threat to everything we've built – and everything we still hope to become. Steve Way, an actor and comedian, is a member of the Caring Across Generations' Creative Care Council.
