Retired miners and widows will have extended permanent medical coverage under the $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the federal government through September. However, a permanent solution on retired miners’ pensions is still in the works.
“[A]fter bipartisan efforts that I have been fighting for, the bill provides a permanent solution that will ensure Indiana’s retired mineworkers and their families receive the health care benefits they have earned,” Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly said. “This is a clear example of what happens when we work together.”
Eighth District Indiana Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Newburgh, had also been a strong advocate for the pensions and health care benefits of retired miners. A comment from his staff could not be reached by press deadline.
“We’re pleased with (the resolution),” Indiana Coal Miner Political Action Committee Chairman William Yockey said. “That’s going to bring relief to about 1,500 of our members and widows. It will give them a permanent solution to the problem.
“We received tremendous support throughout the coal mining communities in southern Indiana, including Sullivan County,” he added, noting every town and county legislative body in Sullivan provided a petition of support on the issues.
Similar federal support for pension benefits, which would affect thousands more retired miners, is not included in this week’s deal, according to the Associated Press.
“I recognize that the extension of health benefits for this group of retirees will not address all of the challenges facing every Kentucky miner or retiree, but I am proud that it will help address many of the health care needs of thousands of miners who fell victim to the steep downturn in coal production,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “I will continue to fight to provide relief for coal communities going forward.”
The Kentucky Republican, who advocated for the permanent health care fix in December, believes the miners’ pension issue will need to be addressed as part of a broader pensions reform, spokesman Robert Steurer told the Associated Press.
Yockey said last week members of his organization met with UMWA President Cecil Roberts, with Roberts advising the pension issue would be addressed later.
“He is 100 percent committed to having the pension issue resolved at a later date,” he noted. “We’ll wait to see what president Roberts plans on how to get that resolved.”
Although not addressed in the budget bill, Yockey said that the pension issue is not at a breaking point.
“I haven’t seen the final resolutions,” he noted. “(The pensions) include already funded money that had not been used. We have two or three years yet before our pensions reach a critical stage.”
Locally, both the health care and pension issues have a significant impact.
Sullivan County has one of the higher number of health beneficiaries and pensioners in the state receiving fund benefits, with figures from 2014 showing the county ranked fifth of 92 counties in total pensioners and sixth in health beneficiaries.
In 2014, retired miners in Sullivan County received total health expenditures of $1.24 million and total pensions paid of $1.74 million, according to UMWA Health & Retirement Funds statistics.
Among counties in the state, Warrick topped state pensioners with 566, followed by Gibson (431), Greene (311), Pike (265) and Sullivan (206). Gibson had the most health beneficiaries in 2014 with 273, with Pike (268), Warrick (159), Clay (127), Greene (87) and Sullivan (81) following.
Lawmakers in West Virginia particularly pushed for a permanent solution on the benefit issue, with those lawmakers telling the Associated Press that more than 22,000 retired miners and widows whose medical coverage was set to expire this month will instead see that coverage extended permanently under the new congressional spending plan.
The cost is estimated at about $1.3 billion over a decade, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin told the AP in a conference call Monday. It will be funded by a customs user fee on imports, instead of the interest from the existing federal fund used to clean up old abandoned mines, he said.
“It’s been a long time, over three years, we’ve worked on this, getting a permanent fix for all of our miners that have been left behind,” Manchin said. “This is all miners who have been retired, their widows who’ve been worried about whether they’d have health care or not.”
Manchin said the sooner they take care of the pensions the less costly it will be.
“We’re going to start working feverishly on that,” he said.