Miners to lose Black Lung benefits when Obamacare is repealed.

[Cattledog]

Story on Anderson Cooper 360

[NCTraveler]

1. #MAGA!!!!! nt.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. If it happens, the miners did it to themselves

By voting for Trump and the republicans. You know, coal miners actually believe that Pres O shut down the mines and that Sec Clinton hates them. That just goes to show how much sway the republiCANTs have over these rubes...

[Ohioblue22]

3. Good perhaps it's time the cons had their way with people

I'm tired of arguing with cons and dems as to why you should vote for the dem's nom. So now let them be shown

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Yep.

Lots and lots of people will lose important benefits when Obamacare is repealed.

Unfortunately, the miners aren't the only ones. Not that I wish they were, mind you. It is too bad that the cuts and loss of benefits couldn't be targeted specifically to those who voted for Trump. I certainly have zero sympathy for any Trump voter at this point.

[Aristus]

5. I can't summon as little as an iota of sympathy.

If people are going to insist on being their own worst enemies, who am I to stand in their way?...

[doc03]

6. How does black lung tie into Obamacare

Black lung benifits had been around for decades?

[JustAnotherGen]

8. I think this is it

https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/owcp/owcp20160425

It's on the Department of Labor web site - i.e. - we all own the content so posting here in its entirety - the last update to it -




WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs today issued a final rule to strengthen safeguards for the health of coal workers. The rule makes significant revisions to the regulations implementing the Black Lung Benefits Act that will give miners greater access to their health information, bolster the accuracy of claims decisions, and require coal mine companies to pay all disability or survivor’s benefits due in a claim before modification can challenge the award.


No worker should have to sacrifice their health to provide for their family, including the thousands of men and women who work in coal mines across the country to meet the nation’s energy needs. These hardworking Americans deserve to know the full scope of their medical condition, and the new rule ensures that they have full access to information about their health, by requiring all parties to exchange any medical information that they develop in connection with a claim, even if they do not intend to submit the information into evidence. Previously, parties generally kept any medical information that they did not submit into evidence confidential.

“This rule makes clear that coal miners have a right to know a full picture of their health. No workers should lose their lives because of known dangers that were kept from them in the interest of their employers,” said Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs Director Leonard Howie. “We have carefully considered this rule and I am confident that these changes will bring transparency and improve claims safeguards for our nation’s coal miners.”

Ensuring that all parties have access to the most relevant medical evidence will prevent the type of tragic outcome for vulnerable coal miners like Gary Fox who filed a claim for black lung benefits after working in the coal mines for more than 30 years. Fox filed a claim in 1999 after a chest X-ray and a biopsy showed a mass in his right lung. Fox did not have legal representation when he filed his claim, and the coal company submitted reports from radiologists and four pulmonologists who all concluded that he did not have coal workers’ pneumoconiosis. However, the company had developed two additional pathologists’ opinions, both of which showed that Fox had complicated pneumoconiosis, an advanced stage of black lung disease. The company did not share these reports with either Fox or even the doctors whose reports they put into evidence, and an Administrative Law Judge denied his first claim for benefits.

Without access to this vital health information, Fox chose to keep working until he left the mines in 2006 at the age of 56 when he could no longer breathe well enough to do his job. He filed a second claim for benefits that same year, but this time he was represented by an attorney who was able to obtain an order requiring the coal company to turn over the medical reports the company had not shared during the first claim proceeding. Even then, the coal company refused and did not turn over the information until 2008. Eventually, the company admitted that Fox was entitled to benefits. He later succumbed to the disease while awaiting a lung transplant in 2009.

“Under the new provisions, any miner in a situation like Gary Fox’s will be able to make an informed decision regarding continuing to work and caring for their lung condition,” said Solicitor of Labor M. Patricia Smith. “Making sure that coal miners have all the information regarding their health will put all parties on equal footing regardless of representation and will lead to better, more accurate claims decisions for coal miners across the country.”

Parties who fail to share any medical data they develop about the miner are subject to sanctions. Additionally, the final rule reinforces coal mine companies’ obligations to pay benefits under existing orders while the modification proceedings to challenge orders are underway. The rule allows coal companies one year from the last payment of benefits to seek reconsideration of an effective order awarding disability or survivor’s benefits. Although they are legally obligated to pay benefits while challenging these awards, coal companies commonly refuse to do so. The final rule requires the operator to pay before they can challenge the award through the act’s modification procedures.

Finally, the rule makes several changes to existing regulations. To support miners who submit multiple physicians’ reports for the same claim, the rule clarifies that those supplemental reports are a continuation of the physician’s earlier report for the purpose of department’s evidence-limiting rules. The rule also includes a change allowing the U.S. Department of Labor to participate fully in the adjudication process when a liable coal operator stops its participation due to adverse financial developments, such as bankruptcy or insolvency.

The Federal Register published the Final Rule on April 25, 2016, and it is available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-09525.pdf.

The mission of the Division of Coal Mine Workers’ Compensation, the federal Black Lung Program, is to administer claims filed under the Black Lung Benefits Act. The act provides compensation to coal miners who are totally disabled by pneumoconiosis arising out of coal mine employment, eligible survivors of miners whose death was attributable to or hastened by pneumoconiosis and survivors of miners who were entitled to benefits at the time of their death. The act also provides eligible miners with coverage for medical treatment of lung diseases arising out of coal mine employment. More information is available at: http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dcmwc/

[LanternWaste]

9. The ACA included a provision meant to reverse the difficulty coal miners experienced

The ACA included a provision meant to reverse the difficulty coal miners experienced when applying for compensation for black lung disease. Before 2009, miners had to prove not only that they were disabled because of breathing problems, and that they had coal workers’ black lung, but that their disability was caused by their years in the mine. Due in large part to the efforts of the late Sen. Byrd, the ACA shifted the burden of proof for black lung off of the miner and onto the company.

[pnwmom]

13. The ACA changed the law so that it is ASSUMED that someone with black lung

who worked for 15 years is eligible for disability. Before the worker had to prove that their job caused the lung problems -- which was hard to do.

[doc03]

14. So it won't actually cut benefits for anyone already receiving

Black Lung just make it more difficult to get for new claims.

[pnwmom]

16. That's not clear. But there are more and more people being diagnosed,

and it could prevent those people from getting disability payments.

To say it "just makes it more difficult to get for new claims" is to make it seem as if those people are unimportant. But they are important, and there will be a lot of them, because black lung takes years to develop.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. AC was four weeks late with this

http://www.wymt.com/content/news/Miners-could-lose-benefits--408368965.html

"President Elect Trump promised people that he was going to restore mining jobs," Sanders said. "I don't think he thought about what the Affordable Care Act might mean to miners who are applying for black lung benefits."

Linda Adams' husband, Tony, died three years ago. She supported Trump in the presidential election.
"If Obamacare goes away we're gonna be in a world of depression," Adams said. Adams devotes her life to helping other apply for benefits. She hopes the benefits will survive, even if Obamacare is abolished. She is her eye on Trump's actions.
"If he doesn't come across like he promised. He's not going to be there next time. Not if I can help it," she said.

Another widow, Patty Amburgey, depends on her benefits. She also counts on social security, and a small pension every month. "It's not a large amount but it's enough to pay the bills," Amburgey said.

Neil Yonts, a former coal miner, initially supported Hillary Clinton; however, he changed his mind and voted for Trump to bring jobs back. He now also fears Trump's promise to kill Obamacare will end his black lung benefits.
"When they eliminate the Obamacare they may just eliminate all the black lung program. It may all be gone," he said. "Don't matter how many years you got."

Part of Trump's first one hundred day agenda includes repealing and replacing Obamacare.

He said he was going to do it.
Republicans have voted to repeal it how many times?


I'm sorry - but I need to worry about how we are going to educate the children in my community when Betsey Devos destroys public education. These folks in W.V. are on their own.

[Vinca]

10. Well, they voted for their lord and savior, Donald J. Trump.

Oops.

[onecaliberal]

11. They'll be getting what they voted for. They have no one to blame but themselves

[spanone]

12. ...and they voted for!!!!!!

he lied for their votes...it's easy that way.

[adigal]

15. You reap what you sow nt

[BigDemVoter]

17. I guess those poor people are fucked now. . . . .

NOBODY deserves this, but hopefully there is a lesson that WILL be learned here; do NOT ever vote for a repig.