Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Threat Of Losing Medical Benefits Hangs Over Sick Coal Miners As Another Company Announces Bankruptcy
The Wall Street Journal: Coal Miners’ Pension, Health Benefits Under Stress After Bankruptcies
A pension fund covering about 90,000 coal workers and their families is on the brink of insolvency while hundreds of these miners also face losing medical benefits, part of mounting financial stress on the larger safety net meant to protect sick or out-of-work miners. The United Mine Workers of America multiemployer pension plan is projected to become insolvent during its 2022 plan year if Congress doesn’t authorize using public funds to buttress it for the first time in a history tracing back more than 70 years. Murray Energy, which filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, is the last major contributor to the fund. (Randles, 10/30)
The Washington Post: Murray Energy Files For Bankruptcy As Trump's Coal Bailout Efforts Falter
The long-anticipated bankruptcy is another sign that President Trump’s efforts to save the sputtering coal industry, a central promise of his 2016 campaign, have largely failed. It also speaks to the “significant stress on the coal industry today,” said Benjamin Nelson, a coal analyst and Moody’s vice president. Coal once fueled about half of all U.S. electricity; now it powers less than a quarter. (Telford and Grandoni, 10/29)
In other news —
Texas Tribune and Grist: How Texas Lets Coal Companies Leave Behind Contaminated Land
San Miguel Electric Cooperative, which took over operations of the plant and mine — and the Peeler lease agreement — in 1978, ceased mining on the family’s ranch in 2004 and moved on to other private land close to the power plant. But 15 years later, after paying the family millions of dollars to mine lignite on the ranch, San Miguel has only fully restored about a fifth of the land it disturbed. (Collier and Sadasivan, 10/30)
