Confusion on whether a guarantee of health insurance would create a financial burden for volunteer fire departments and municipalities has been cleared up.

Those departments will not be subject to next year’s employer mandate provisions of the federal health care law.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has issued a statement saying the volunteer emergency services will not need to offer insurance to their volunteers, regardless of the size of their organization.

While volunteer firefighters are not paid, the Internal Revenue Service considers them employees for tax purposes. This classification created confusion on whether large volunteer fire departments would be subject to the employer mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act.

That mandate, which begins in 2015, states all businesses with more than 50 full-time employees must offer health insurance for full-time workers or pay a penalty.

The IRS considers anyone working more than 30 hours per week on average a full-time employee.

The employer mandate could be a disaster for volunteer departments and municipalities that often fund them, according to Ed Kirkwood, the manager for Butler Township.

“A family plan today is about $15,000,” Kirkwood said of health insurance. “With 130 firefighters, we would have a very difficult time playing that.”

The township is home to three departments: Butler Township Fire District No. 3, South Butler and Mercer Road.

Under the health care law, the penalty fee for not offering insurance to employees will be $2,000 per employee, with the first 30 employees being exempt.

“I’ve got to assume it would be tough for other townships as well,” Kirkwood said. “I don’t know any that are rolling in dough.”

The confusion raised debate on whether fire departments would need to cut staff or cut hours. It was something Kirkwood said would be detrimental to the community.

“I’m not sure the average person understands the efforts of our firefighters,” he said. “We need them.”

While some townships were concerned over the confusion, others were not.

Jerry Andree, the Cranberry Township manager, said his township officials have not discussed the issue.

“We knew it was never the intent of the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “We weren’t in any kind of panic mode because we knew that was part of the law.”

Cranberry has about 90 active volunteers with its volunteer fire department.

However, Andree did say he is pleased to see the Department of the Treasury specifically state its stance on the issue.

“We were glad to hear that full-time firefighters will not be considered full- time employees,” he said. “It’s good to have the clarification.”

Before the announcement by the Department of the Treasury, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly cosponsored a bill introduced by Rep. Lou Barletta that would exclude volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel from the provisions.

Kelly said, “Lou came to me, and we discussed how volunteer firefighters were put in a bad situation with ObamaCare. So we jumped on board with this to help protect the number of people in our community this would affect.”

Kelly said he is pleased that the IRS responded to pressure from the bill.

“We’re still trying to understand how so many people missed this,” he said. “But that’s what Congress is for. We’re here to fix oversight. I really applaud Rep. Barletta for getting this going.”

Kirkwood said he hopes legislation will be passed to protect firefighters in the future.

“Just because (the IRS) changed their mind today, doesn’t mean they won’t change their mind again in the future,” he said. “This should be regulated by an act of legislation.”