Why California firefighters are waiting for workers comp

California’s massive workers’ comp insurance system — which is supposed to provide medical care for workplace injuries — is failing the firefighters who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems. As CalMatters environmental reporter Julie Cart explains, Cal Fire firefighters have to fight the system, often hiring attorneys, to get their medical bills paid.

Julie previously reported a series of stories revealing a mental health epidemic at Cal Fire, with suicide attempts and PTSD increasing as California’s wildfires become more erratic and dangerous.

In 2020, lawmakers added a legal shortcut or “presumption” to the state labor code, stipulating that firefighters and other first responders are considered at high risk for PTSD in the course of doing their work. This was supposed to ease their burden of proof to link their mental trauma to their work. 

But in practice, experts say that proving a mental health claim is still almost as difficult to overcome as the psychological injury itself. 

The nonprofit think tank RAND Corp. found that in the 12 years before the law took effect, workers’ comp officials denied PTSD claims filed by firefighters and other first responders at more than twice the rate of their other work-related conditions, such as back injuries and pneumonia. About a quarter of firefighters’ 1,000 PTSD claims were denied, a higher rate than for PTSD claims from other California workers. 

• The researchers, who interviewed a representative sample of 13 first responders: “Nearly all workers said that they had filed a workers’ compensation claim for their mental health conditions — yet almost none received PTSD care paid for by workers’ compensation.” 

Therapists say the problem has not improved much, if at all, since the law went into effect. For firefighters struggling with anxiety and thoughts of suicide, waiting for care is excruciating and debilitating.

Systemwide, only a third of medical losses in California are paid by workers’ comp within two years of an injury, while it’s two-thirds in other states. And about 36% take five years or longer in California, about twice the median in other states.

In a second story, Julie reports that more and more doctors and therapists are refusing to take patients who are covered by workers’ comp, knowing that they may not get reimbursed for months, even years.

Worker’s comp, said one therapist, is in a “total system breakdown.”

To learn more about firefighters’ issues with workers’ comp and the response of therapists, read Julie’s stories.

Wildfire season: Check out CalMatters’ wildfire tracker for live updates on active fires, a FAQ and other information. And find out more on wildfires in our updated explainer.

Three months after Gov. Gavin Newsom postponed his annual State of the State address, the governor fulfilled his state constitutional duty Tuesday by posting a pre-recorded speech, writes CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff. 

During the 28 minutes on screen, Newsom touted his administration’s efforts to protect reproductive rights, secure the southern border, reduce homelessness and more. He also warned that California is being threatened by “conservatives and delusional California bashers” who want to turn the country “toward a darker future.” 

• Newsom: “They want to roll back social progress, social justice, racial justice, economic justice, clean air, clean water, and basic fundamental fairness. They would cleave America from the principles of freedom and the rule of law. And in the process, throw our economy and, in many respects, society as we’ve known it, into chaos.”

Criticism of Newsom’s speech from Republican legislators was immediate — particularly over what they say is Newsom’s focus on national politics instead of Califlornians’ concerns. Senate GOP leader Brian Jones of San Diego said on social media that Newsom’s speech failed to address crime, California’s high cost of living and businesses leaving the state. 

At a press conference outside the state Capitol, Redding Sen. Brian Dahle (who lost the governor’s race to Newsom in 2022) said Newsom was “running the state into the ground.” Assembly GOP leader James Gallagher of Chico said the governor was “on the defensive” and “unhinged.” 

• Gallagher: “We don’t hear any substance on the state of the state about the progress being made because there is none. … Of all the things that he said he was going to do — a California for all — none of it has come to fruition.”

The California Republican Party was also quick to denounce that Newsom is expected to represent President Joe Biden in the media “spin room” Thursday, after the presidential debate with former President Donald Trump in Atlanta.

Read more about Newsom’s speech in Alexei’s story.

Water woes: While Newsom briefly mentioned a few water issues — the Klamath River dam removal, Sites reservoir and Delta tunnel — he didn’t talk about Californians who lack clean water.

As CalMatters water reporter Rachel Becker explains, as of Jan. 1, nearly a million residents did not have safe and reliable drinking water supplies, according to the state’s Water Resources Control Board. The number has since dropped to roughly 771,00, but in its annual analysis released Tuesday, the department found that of the nearly 400 water systems that don’t meet state requirements, two-thirds of them serve communities of color.

The water board estimates that it’ll cost $16 billion over the next five years to fix the problem, and while it can cover about $2 billion, the rest of the money would have to come from water suppliers and well owners. Learn more about the issue in Rachel’s story.

After losing her bid for the Los Angeles City Council in March, Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo is not sure what her next step will be when she leaves the Legislature at the end of the year. But before she goes, the Los Angeles Democrat is attempting to turn what could be considered a low point of her career into something constructive.

As CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow explains, on Nov. 3 last year, Carrillo crashed into parked cars in Northeast Los Angeles. Her blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, according to police. Since her DUI arrest, Carrillo has openly talked about her struggles with alcohol, which started in her youth, in promoting her bill to require high school students to learn about the impacts of excessive drinking and the harms caused by alcohol.

• Carrillo, to CalMatters: “I had a very public fall. And it is only by the grace of God that I wasn’t hurt and that nobody else was hurt. But it was really an opportunity for me to look in the mirror.”

Learn more about Carrillo in Ryan’s story.

In other Capitol news:

Media money: A bill that would require major online platforms including Google and Meta to pay a yearly fee or enter arbitration with media publications for linking or scraping their news content passed out of the Senate judiciary committee Tuesday.

During the hearing, the bill’s author, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, said that the proposal was still a work in progress and that she would continue to work with stakeholders, including smaller news organizations and the tech companies that oppose the bill, to “land something hopefully on the governor’s desk that we can all be proud of.”

• Wicks, an Oakland Democrat: “Some argue that the government should sit by while the marketplace sorts this out. But economic factors which support quality journalism and the technological advancements that impacts its vitality have never been ignored by our system of government.”

But Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s vice president of global news partnerships, argued that the measure was “profoundly unconstitutional and problematic” since it could compel platforms to show content that they were forced to pay for.

Sen. Roger Niello of Rocklin, one of the two Republicans who voted against the bill, also raised concerns that the measure’s benefits would mostly go towards hedge funds and investors. And citing Meta’s blocking of Canadian publishers after a similar law passed last year, Niello also said the bill assumes companies will “simply comply” if passed. (Reminder: Google pulled the same move against California outlets in April.) 

Ballot update: Voters won’t get their say in November on a constitutional amendment to allow targeted support to improve the education and health of specific demographic groups, chipping away at Proposition 209, which voters approved in 1996 to ban racial preferences. 

The author, Assemblymember Corey Jackson, told CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn on Tuesday that he’s giving up trying to get the amendment on the ballot. Jackson, a Moreno Valley Democrat, said he’s worried it wouldn’t pass because of voters brought out by an anti-crime initiative. Read more in Mikhail’s story.    

In addition, Gov. Newsom announced Tuesday that two health care measures are coming off the ballot. He agreed to add pandemic prevention to an existing health institute; in return, the proponent is withdrawing a measure to tax income of more than $5 million a year to fund a pandemic prevention institute. Support for the initiative dried up after the conviction of cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, a main backer, Politico reports. 

The governor also said he made a deal with the California Hospital Association to increase funding for the care of critically ill children. The proponents of a just-qualified measure have agreed to withdraw it.    

This month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its most significant reproductive rights ruling since overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 — focusing on the abortion pill. CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang and producer Robert Meeks have a video version of her story. Watch it here.

The segment is part of SoCalMatters, which airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal and is available on YouTube.