| Offices : Beckley • Charleston • Fairmont • Martinsburg • Washington, DC | E-mail Senator Rockefeller |
Coal Miners Health Care Senator Rockefeller has long battled to protect the health care benefits for 200,000 retired coal miners and their dependents that were promised to them under an historic agreement between President Truman and UMWA President John L. Lewis in 1946. Unfortunately, with coal companies shutting down over the years, contributions to the UMWA Health Benefits Trust Funds declined and health care coverage for coal miners and their widows was threatened. However, under Rockefeller's persistent leadership, a compromise was reached between the coal industry and UMWA to shore up the Health Benefits Trust Funds and protect health care for retirees. The compromise, known as the Coal Act, was passed in 1992. Since that time, Rockefeller has fought to keep these health benefits strong. He authored a plan that allowed Medicare to pay the United Mine Workers of America Combined Benefit Funds approximately an additional $140 million, to cover health care insurance and lower the costs of miners' prescription drug coverage. And, he succeeded in getting $1 billion in funding for the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program to help shore-up benefits, ensuring that there will not be a health benefit cut for more than 17,000 West Virginia miners and their widows - whose average age is nearly 80. |
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