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Clock ticking to save health care for W.Va. miners

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In just one week, nearly 22,000 coal miners and their families across the nation could lose their health care benefits if Congress fails to pass a budget.

West Virginia’s congressional delegation has been fighting to pass the Miners Protection Act before long term benefits expire April 30. The plan will need to be approved by Congress by next Friday, April 28 in order to preserve benefits in the 1974 United Mine Workers of America Pension Fund.

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)

“We’ve got to have the permanent health care fix,” said U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) during a stop in Charleston Friday.

The senator said her top priority is to pass the health care part of the plan.

“We can live to fight on the pensions another day, so I think it looks more like the health care is the one that is going to be the one that we’re working the hardest on at this point and have the mostly likelihood of actually getting there,” she said.

It’s possible another extension could be put in place instead of a permanent solution, but Capito said that would be unacceptable.

“We can’t keep dragging these folks through the trauma and torment of not knowing whether they’re going to have their health insurance over a four month period. That’s totally unfair,” she said.

Benefits and pensions were promised to these miners and their widows since the 1940s, said Third District Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.).

“Our miners depend on it,” Jenkins said. “This is a promise that must be kept and we are fighting every day.”

On Monday, the state’s delegation and UMWA President Cecil Roberts urged leaders in Congress to include the miners’ benefits in the funding bill.

3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.)

Meanwhile, Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are discussing a new Obamacare replacement plan after a previous bill was pulled from the House Floor last month due to lack of support.

It’s too early to tell if a vote will come next week, but sources told POLITCO it’s “unlikely.”

Jenkins said the new plan addresses elements he cares about.

“The issues of pre-existing conditions, making sure we don’t have gender discrimination in pricing, making sure that we don’t have lifetime limits,” he said. “I have been pushing to make sure that people are protected.”

He said he’s “cautiously encouraged” by aspects of the new plan that he believes will help West Virginians. Capito told MetroNews she still has to review the specifics.

The people need to be in charge of their own health care, Jenkins said.

“We need to get our health care system where people are back in control of their health care, not government,” he said. “Both Republicans and Democrats agree that the current system is broken and needs fixed.”

The government faces a possible shutdown if a funding bill is not approved by next Friday.

“We cannot do that to the American public, the services that are provided by our federal government,” Capito said. “I’m going to fight hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The Senate will reconvene Monday after a two-week Easter recess. The House will return Tuesday.





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