- November 16, 2025
Last month, I met a retired Volusia County firefighter who spent 28 years running into burning buildings. He told me something that breaks my heart: at 54, he's working night shifts at a warehouse, not because he wants to, but because he needs health insurance. His pension doesn't start covering health care until he's 65. That's an 11-year gap where this hero has to choose between medical care and making ends meet.
This isn't just his story. It's the story of thousands of Florida's retired police officers, firefighters and paramedics who served their communities until their bodies couldn't take it anymore. We send them home with a thank you and a pension, then leave them stranded in what I call the “retirement health care desert,” that brutal stretch between career's end and Medicare eligibility.
Here's what really gets me. We already solved this problem for our military veterans. They get TRICARE. They get CHAMPVA. They get care. And they absolutely deserve it, I'm not suggesting otherwise. But why do we treat the cop who’s been shot at in Daytona Beach differently than the soldier who served in Kandahar? Both wore uniforms. Both took an oath. Both sacrificed for us.
In Washington, everything is partisan these days. But supporting first responders? That's not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. It's an American issue. Senators from both parties have introduced legislation allowing retired first responders to buy into Medicare starting at age 50. Not a handout. A buy-in. They'd pay premiums just like anyone else, with help from tax credits, and employer contributions.
This works because Medicare already exists. We're not building something new; we're just opening the door a little earlier for people who've earned it. Compare that to trying to expand military health care systems to millions of civilians, which would cost nearly double and create administrative chaos.
Congress could also boost the current $3,000 annual tax break for retired first responders to buy health insurance, perhaps taking it to $12,000 or $15,000. That's real money that helps real families. Or we could create a federal backstop protecting local pension funds that still offer retiree health care, making it affordable for cities and counties to keep their promises.
Florida has over 75,000 law enforcement officers and firefighters. Many face mandatory retirement in their early 50s. In Flagler County alone, think about every deputy, every firefighter, every EMT who's responded to your emergency. Now imagine them at 52, healthy enough to enjoy retirement but stuck paying $1,800 a month for private insurance. That's $21,600 a year that is often half their pension.
These aren't numbers on a spreadsheet. These are our neighbors. The woman who delivered your baby when you couldn't make it to the hospital in time. The officer who talked your kid out of making a terrible mistake. The firefighter who saved your dog from that house fire.
I'm running for Congress because I believe in an America that keeps its promises. An America where service means something beyond a handshake and a certificate. Where we don't ask people to sacrifice their health protecting us, then abandon them when they need protection.
This is about dignity. It's about gratitude, not just in words but in action. It's about recognizing that the measure of our society isn't just how we honor heroes when they're on duty, it's how we care for them when they've given everything they had to give.
When I get to Washington, I'm introducing legislation to give our first responders real health care security in retirement. Not because it's easy or politically convenient, but because it's right. Because in the America I believe in, the America we all believe in, we take care of the people who take care of us.
That's not a Democratic value or a Republican value. That's an American value. And it's worth fighting for.
Palm Coast City Councilman Charles Gambaro is running for the Florida District 6 seat in the U.S. House.
