Iowa Governor signs bill expanding cancer coverage for first responders

DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa Capitol Bureau) - Iowa’s first responders will now have better benefits when they get diagnosed with cancer. Friday, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill expanding coverage for Iowa’s firefighters and law enforcement.

Kelli Stoaks’ husband Brian was a Des Moines firefighter for 27 years. He battled pancreatic cancer and died in 2023 .

“He, you know, never thought about the fact that he could get sick from doing his job. He just did it because it was the right thing to do. From the time he was in kindergarten, that’s all he wanted to do was be a firefighter and he made his dream come true,” she said.

Stoaks says that her husband’s cancer wasn’t a type of cancer that was covered under state law.

“Any of his shifts that he wasn’t able to work, he wo