Representative Antonio Celebrates National EMS Week

This week marks the 44th Annual National Emergency Medical Service Week, a week dedicated to honoring the brave citizens who devote themselves to providing life-saving care to Americans. Putting themselves in harm’s way, EMS providers respond to everything from active shooter situations to drownings, from behavioral health crises to vehicle collisions. Truly, emergency medical technicians and paramedics are public servants in every sense, ensuring we all have access to critically important care when we need it.

Serving as a First Responder is not for the faint of heart. Continuous training, increasing call volumes and exhausting shifts only scratch the surface. Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel must respond to many of the same emergencies firefighters and law officers address, including active shooter situations, drownings, behavioral health crises, vehicle collisions, and domestic violence crimes, just to name a few. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the fatality rate for EMS workers to be almost double that of other emergency occupations. It is abundantly clear paramedics and emergency medical technicians face the same occupational hazards and dangers as other first responders.

Despite emergency care being such a source of strength in our communities, Ohio law has yet to accommodate EMTs and Paramedics in the same way these statutes provide for other first responders. Currently, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) recognizes many first responders, including firefighters and law enforcement officials, as public safety officers. This provision allows this subset of first responders to retire after 25 years of service. Unfortunately, this is not the case for emergency medical personnel, who must work 32 years in order to retire with the same benefits as their first responder colleagues in alternate fields.

Upon this discovery, I have resolved to legislate a solution. I introduced House Bill (HB) 486, a bill designed to change how OPERS regards EMS personnel by declaring paramedics and emergency medical technicians Public Safety Officers; this will afford EMS personnel the opportunity to retire after 25 years of service.

EMS workers certainly fit the spirit of the OPERS statute that allow earlier retirement for public safety officers because of the dangers of their jobs. They put their lives on the line every single day, and they should be eligible for the fair and equitable retirement that they truly deserve. As the work on HB 486 continues, I am hopeful this legislation will gain further traction among my colleagues in the future allowing for further hearings.

In observance of National Emergency Medical Service Week, I encourage all of us to take time out of our day to thank our community’s EMS workers for all of the work they do to keep our district safe and healthy. I am certainly thankful for them and know how critical their job is. Without their service, I firmly believe we would not have the thriving community we do today.