Posted on 04/11/2010 3:41:17 AM PDT by Scanian
After 20 years with the New York Fire Department, he’s just been awarded a $95,000-a-year lifetime disability pension — amounting to three-fourths of his annual salary, free of state and local taxes — because of a heart ailment.
State law, you see, generally presumes that any police officer or firefighter who suffers heart problems must be doing so as a result of his or her work.
But Neil Coplan isn’t a firefighter.
He’s never fought a fire — and, by most accounts, scarcely ever visited a fire scene.
Coplan is a doctor — the FDNY’s chief cardiologist, in fact.
Yet, as The Post’s Reuven Blau reported last Sunday, a three-doctor panel confirmed his diagnosis, which led to his lucrative pension.
Not that Coplan’s heart ailment has forced him to stop working — he continues to treat patients as director of Lenox Hill Hospital’s Division of Clinical Cardiology.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I knew that I should have been a fireman.
WTF?
And people wonder why this nation is bankrupt?
Were you prepared to work Christmas and holidays. Spend the night away from your family and place you life at risk in ever sort of situation imaginable. Were you ready to jump from a sitting position to working full out at any moment, and breathe whatever atmosphere you may come upon? Were you ready to give up your life if necessary to attempt to save another? Firefighter live an average of ten years less than people in other professions. Were you ready to give up that ten years?
Firefighter deserve their pension. They deserve it more than some others who get better pensions.
Having said that this Doctor was not a Firefighter, he didnt do any of those things, he just took advantage of some loophole in the system that rewards him with a Firefighters pension.
Wahhhhh. It's just a job. If firefighters live shorter lives, it's probably more due to drinking than breathing.
Ooooh! Got your goat, didn’t I. Before you go on a rant you should check profiles.
Although most firefighters do not have abusive pension rewards....this guy did not deserve a special disability pension
The biggest problem with government pensions is that people get multiple ones from governments.....many retired cops from the northeast are working in Florida law enforcement....and able to collect another retirement as early as six years...
I have a friend who is a fireman. He works two days a week as a fire-fighter; 2x24 hour shifts, spends most of his off-time at the firehouse sleeping or lifting weights, and takes home a salary of $70,000 + a year. He makes standard time the first 8 hours on shift, and overtime for the remaining 16 hours. If he works one additional day, the entire day is at double time. When he is working a standard week, the other 5 days a week he spends building houses, taking a considerable profit.
Now his is 40 years old and looking at a full paid retirement within the next 10 years after 25 years on the job, and a second career completely developed in construction ( with 5 days a week free you can take two days off and still have plenty of time left over to develop a second profession).
Yeah, I have also come to the conclusion that I should have been a firefighter.
There is abuse in the civil service pension system. Your pension is based on your 3 highest years salary.
When guys get close to retiring some places wink and nod then let them run up their overtime.
Sometimes it is legit, sometimes it is not. The ‘not’s are the problem. I’ve seen it over and over through the years. Too many cities are looking the other way when the overtime abuse happens.
A three-doctor panel (brotherhood)for sweat heart deals kind of like the cockroaches in congerss.
Profane !!!!!!!!!
Look at the reality ... without being taxed every which way to Sunday, people would be able to save hundreds of thousands of dollars over their lifetime (15% of $40K per year is $6k; times 30 years worked is $180K), and thus be able to put away enough to take care of themselves.
Yes.
Actually, the money each of us would have is even much more impressive ....
Just a quick analysis:
Instead of paying these incredible taxes, 39% + 15% for self-employment, plus 8% state = at least 62% ...
WHat if we could keep 20% of that (15% or all of the SS + 5% only extra) = 20 % of 60K is $12,000 a year to your own private investment account for 40 years of work (age 22 to age 62)
you would have about $500,000 in the “bank”.!!!!!!!!!!
++++++++ 40 years of interest of more than $500,000 =
WE WOULD ALL BE MILLIONAIRES !!!!!!!!!!!!!
if it weren’t for the stinking US government
paying themselves $120,000 salaries, $5,000,000 in retirement money (total);
Don’t we all know but cannot say that this is where the problems come from —— people who don’t work get rich, bureaucrats get rich, girls having 3 babies by age 20, 6 by age 25, getting $5,000 a month FOREVER from the federal government, overpaid government workers with insane retirement plans all funded by citizens who actually do work, and nearly work themselves to death;
We are being played for chumps by the Grasshoppers, and Obama is the chief Grasshopper, having never worked an honest day in his life at a a real company ... a community organizer is nothing but a
Communist Rabble Rouser !!!!!!!
and who he is rousing
and against whom ???
I think we all know.
Want to see this insanity after it runs to its final insane conclusion???
take a look:
Muslim woman with 8 kids living in $4.2 million London Council House near Paul McCartney says
“Life in Britain is great” !!!
Ya think???
And then she gets $160,000 in cash, each year, more, in “benefits”!!!
Also:
Struggling County Spends Millions On Illegal Aliens’ Dialysis
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2009/aug/struggling-county-spends-millions-illegal-aliens-dialysis
You’ll note I was not making light of the duties that a fireman has, I know they have to wake up at all hours and respond to horrible accidents and fires; that said, it is a fact that they do get paid for a 24 hour shift regardless and they do use their down time to sleep and exercise, etc. I’ve had some very disturbing conversations with my friend with regards to the nature of his work (he’s a paramedic as well), and I certainly respect what firefighters do. My point was simply that I should have given much more consideration to being a fireman - I chose a business route and have paid with my pound of flesh. Personally, I could handle the exertion and grind, trauma, etc., I’ve been first on the scene as a civilian to a heart-attack and kept the guy alive until the Fire Dept. could get there. Regardless, I probably would have been better-off career wise had I chosen a similar path; the benefits are way over what I could achieve in many other fields. There are definitely up-sides, and I am aware of the difficulties.
“Most firefighters are also the paramedics;”
Maybe where you come from they are. You must have the most overtrained FD in the country. Being a paramedic is a specialty job, and most firemen aren’t.
Yes, they do play cards while on duty, sleep, watch TV, play pool, read, cook meals, etc. They also train, wash their vehicles and go shopping while on duty.
My son just came in for a visit...these words are from him:
“In the state of Texas, most cities are requiring that firefighters are state certified (TCFP is accepted any where in the world because that is how good the state of Texas is)AND also paramedic certified. That means that a firefighter IS a paramedic. Most of the 911 calls in the state of Texas..fire runs first...I feel sorry for you and where ever you live if you don’t have this quality of service, but that’s just how Texas is and that’s just how we roll. Now in most rural areas, the 911 call instantly dispatches a EMT system and a volunteer fire department. This is generally how small cities work due to financial concerns.”
Seattle pioneered, perhaps with others I’m unfamiliar with, the paramedic system and what was called Medic One in conjunction with Harborview Medical Center ER and Dr. Copass(sp).
I do not know what Texas considers a “paramedic” so I cannot comment on their competency. Having been in the field for 30 years working closely with many different FDs in emergency situations I can tell you that having every hose jockey trained to the level of the paramedic that I’m familiar with is a gross waste of public funds. It is akin to taking the time and money to train every rifleman to Green Beret or SEAL level. Extravagant, wasteful and totally unneccessary.
Your friend is being paid chump change. Must be a smaller city like Everett. Maybe Tacoma. LOL.
Get a grip. You have no business getting insulted on someone elses behalf, especially when you have no clue what’s going on.
Secondly, you are a typical hypocritical so called conservative. Pissing away taxpayers’ money is fine as long as it’s on your pet project(s).
Get lost.
Well, you finally showed yourself, you liberal $OB. Shove off yourself...no more posts.
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