Retired Miners Lament Trump’s Silence on Imperiled Health Plan -<br />By NOAM SCHEIBERAPRIL 19, 2017<br />UNIONTOWN, Pa. — Donald J. Trump made coal miners a central metaphor of his presidential campaign, promising to “put our miners back to work”<br />and look after their interests in a way that the Obama administration did not.<br />Unless Congress intervenes by late April, government-funded health benefits will abruptly lapse for more than<br />20,000 retired miners, concentrated in Trump states that include Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.<br />Because no new miners would become eligible for the health benefits awarded to this group, the cost would eventually dwindle to zero.
