Arizona firefighters who lost insurance coverage for job-related illnesses because of confusing wording in state workers’ compensation law are getting relief under a new statute, according to Beinsure.
Gov. Katie Hobbs held a bill-signing ceremony where she officially signed legislation dubbed the “Comma Bill” into law, closing a loophole. Hobbs said she signed SB1215 “to ensure our heroes get the workers’ comp and cancer coverage they deserve.”
Before lawmakers adopted Senate Bill 1215, the state listed presumptively covered illnesses in one long sentence. That structure left room for insurers to dispute which diagnoses qualified for coverage. The new version gives each of the 23 covered conditions its own numbered paragraph.
Insurance companies had been using a missing comma in the state’s previous law to deny firefighters comp claims. They argued that because a comma was missing after the word “adeno-carcinoma,” the law only covered cancers found specifically in the respiratory tract and not the same cancer anywhere else in the body.
The dispute became personal for Matthew O’Reilly, a firefighter in Sun City. Doctors found glandular cancer during a routine screening and removed his thyroid. His insurer refused to cover treatment, arguing that his adenocarcinoma did not fall under the statute.
The argument turned on one phrase in the old law: adenocarcinoma or mesothelioma of the respiratory tract. The insurer read the respiratory-tract language as applying to both conditions. O’Reilly’s cancer did not involve the respiratory tract, so the company denied the claim.
Sen. Kevin Payne, a Peoria Republican who sponsored the bill, said the sentence needed a comma after adenocarcinoma. That punctuation would have made clear that the respiratory-tract limit applied to mesothelioma, not adenocarcinoma.
O’Reilly said punctuation disputes should not decide whether firefighters receive medical coverage. When Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the bill last month, he said firefighters accept the risks of the job, but they should not face repeated fights over the meaning of a law meant to protect them.
“As firefighters, we know that the job comes with risks,” O’Reilly said. “But if one of those risks gets you sick because of the job, we should not be abandoned; we should not have to prove over and over against the law what the law means and what it’s intended to mean.”
Dan Freiberg, president of the 9,000-member Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, said the bill sends a direct message to insurers. “Arizona will not allow insurance companies to exploit ambiguity in the law at the expense of sick firefighters,” he said.
Firefighters also secured a second health-related change. HB 2641, which Gov. Hobbs also signed last month, bans PFAS in firefighting foam, according to Beinsure.
PFAS, often called forever chemicals, help firefighting foam spread across burning flammable liquids and cut off oxygen. The same chemicals have known links to cancer and create long-term environmental risks because they persist in water and soil.
Arizona had already banned PFAS foam for testing and training. That earlier rule still allowed use during active firefighting, leaving firefighters exposed during real emergency work.
Rep. Sarah Liguori, a Phoenix Democrat, said the exception no longer made sense given the health risks. “Firefighters spend their career running toward danger,” she said.
Every time a firefighter answers a call, they accept risks the rest of us hope we never have to face. But they shouldn’t have to prevent risks that are preventable.
Sarah Liguori, a Phoenix Democrat
Liguori said firefighters already face elevated cancer risk, so removing one avoidable exposure makes practical sense. She also said lower PFAS use helps the wider public because the chemicals now appear in drinking water across many communities.
Arizona’s immediate ban on PFAS firefighting foam includes one exception for public airports. That carveout runs through the end of 2030, matching the deadline set under the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2024.
