NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The 9/11 death toll continues to rise with more and more people getting sick and dying.
The federally funded World Trade Center Health Program has been helping to pay for medical care, but advocates warn it is running out of money.
When the program was founded in the aftermath of 9/11, it was supposed to be funding in perpetuity. But, John Feal, a 9/11 first responder and advocate, told WCBS 880 that it has not worked out that way.
“Because of medical inflation and, you know, in 2015, there was 75,000 people in the World Trade Center Health Program… now there's over 113,000 people in the program,” he said.
Feal made more than 300 trips to Congress over the last few years, fighting and lobbying for the health program and the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.
“We begged. We pleaded. We cried,” he said.
He told WCBS 880 that he is prepared to fight again to ensure the health program gets the funding it needs.
“We're going to ensure that the World Trade Center Health Program is always funded we're going to ensure that the VCF is always funded,” he said.
Feal noted that the death toll from 9/11 illnesses is now greater than that of 9/11 itself – more than 4,600.
“You know we ate there, we slept there. The absorption through the nose, mouth and skin made these men and women in uniform and non-uniform sick,” he said. “It's the longest day in the history of days. It's a day that hasn't ended. There are so many people who haven't had closure. And there's so many people that are reminded that they lost a loved one, they're reminded that they have to take medications.”
He is urging lawmakers to approve a new bill that would add $2.6 billion to the World Trade Center Health Program.
On Friday, New York lawmakers stood next to 9/11 first responders and survivors, asking Congress to pass the needed funding for the program.
Over $2.5 billion is needed over the next decade to keep the World Trade Center Health Fund solvent, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
"The number of people sick and dying has greatly increased and the cost of medical care, which we don't want to skip on for one nickel, greatly increased so we need more dollars now," Schumer said.
At Mount Sinai's main campus, Dr. Stephen Markowitz, with Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadrog Act, is seeing many new patients.
"We are now entering a potentially dangerous period of time," he said. "Most toxins that cause chronic illnesses, they don't operate within a year or two or five, it's usually 15 or 20 and years later that we begin to see some of those issues."
New York's Congressional delegation will need to convince other lawmakers that the 9/11 attack wasn't just an attack on New York, but on the entire country.
"We want their support but at the very minimum, don't stand in the way," Schumer said.
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