The Associated Press

ONEIDA COUNTY, N.Y. — With the number of volunteer firefighters in New York declining, state lawmakers approved legislation to make them eligible for low-cost municipal health insurance.

"It's a good recruitment and retention bill," said Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, an Oneida County Democrat who sponsored the measure. It passed the Assembly 140-0 last month and the Senate by voice vote this week.

It was the top priority of volunteer firefighting and emergency services, Destito said. According to state and association data, their ranks statewide have thinned by about 20,000 since the mid-1980s to fewer than 100,000.

"It's a tool that has no fiscal impact on state or local taxpayers, but it allows volunteer fire services to buy into certain municipal health care plans," Destito said. "It's not funded in any way by the state or local government."

The measure, under review by Gov. David Paterson, would take effect in 180 days.

Details will have to be worked out in regulations by the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control, said Destito, who chairs the Assembly Governmental Operations Committee.

Meanwhile, lawmakers approved a measure to extend through 2011 an Insurance Law amendment that sets the maximum premium rate for individual proprietors at 115 percent of the rate established for group health insurance coverage through associations.

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Sponsors said many small businesses would be forced to drop health insurance coverage if premium hikes were beyond what they can absorb.