NY 1

City Councilman Michael McMahon says workers made ill from their work at the World Trade Center following the September 11th terrorist attacks are also at risk financially because of a gap in healthcare coverage -- and he's proposing a bill to bridge that gap.

"Anyone who raced in to save lives, or to recover loved ones, or to protect our city, deserves this coverage," said the councilman.

Wednesday, McMahon was joined by the presidents of the rank-and-file police and fire unions as well as plenty of his City Council colleagues to promote the bill, which would require the city to pay temporary healthcare costs for sick workers who are waiting to get into a federal program providing long-term benefits.

Currently, it's taking anywhere from several months to upwards of a year for the workers to get a disability pension once they get sick. This means high co-payments and prescription costs and some treatments which are not covered at all.

"We're dealing with cancers, we're dealing with organs being removed, we're dealing with breathing, lung diseases, sarcoidosis," said Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch. "All of that brings up the payment aspect of the every month co-payments, the amount of money that's being paid, and we know from many, many times at this microphone what New York City police officers and firefighters get paid, this is a huge added burden."

"We worry about the future, because so many firefighters have had tremendous disabilities as it relates to lungs and cancers and other illnesses," said Uniformed Firefighters' Association President Steve Cassidy.

Supporters are optimistic the bill will pass because it is not aimed at providing long-term benefits, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg has objected to in the past. They estimate funding it will cost the city only about one or two million dollars.

McMahon is hoping to get full support from the council before taking the bill to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn -- and eventually the mayor.