Florida enacts Chapter 2026-99 expanding firefighter cancer benefits, removes health-plan barrier for former employees
CS/CS/SB 984, signed by Governor DeSantis, takes effect July 1 and grants former firefighters access to the $25,000 diagnosis payment and disability benefits regardless of whether they continued employer health coverage after leaving service.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed CS/CS/SB 984 into law as Chapter 2026-99, expanding the firefighter cancer benefit program established under Florida Statutes Chapter 112, according to the Florida Senate bill page. The act takes effect July 1, 2026.
Florida maintains a firefighter cancer benefit program that is structurally separate from the traditional workers' compensation system. Under it, a firefighter diagnosed with cancer may elect to receive Chapter 112 benefits as an alternative to pursuing workers' compensation claims under Chapter 440. To qualify under existing and continuing criteria, the firefighter must have been employed by the same employer for at least five continuous years, must not have used tobacco products for at least the five years preceding the diagnosis, and must not have held any other employment that the employer proves would create a comparable or higher cancer risk during that window.
Chapter 2026-99 makes three substantive changes to that framework.
Health-plan election no longer a condition of eligibility. The most significant amendment removes a provision that had required former firefighters to elect to continue coverage in an employer-sponsored health insurance plan or group health trust fund as a condition of receiving benefits. Under the new law, current and former firefighters are eligible for the $25,000 one-time disability payment and associated benefits for up to ten years after leaving service, regardless of whether they continued any employer-sponsored health coverage.
Out-of-pocket treatment costs become an employer obligation. Chapter 2026-99 also requires the employer to timely reimburse the firefighter for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with cancer treatment, including deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance costs.
Death benefits aligned with line-of-duty treatment. Finally, the act provides that a firefighter who dies as a result of cancer or as a result of circumstances arising out of the treatment of cancer is treated as having died in the manner described in Florida Statutes section 112.191(2)(a). That classification makes all benefits associated with that provision available to the deceased firefighter's beneficiaries, placing cancer-related deaths on equal footing with other line-of-duty deaths under the statute.
The Senate companion bill was sponsored by Sen. Nick DiCeglie. The bill passed both chambers of the 2026 Florida Legislature and was assigned Chapter 2026-99. All provisions are effective July 1, 2026.
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