Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Health Care Marketplace

Newspapers Examine Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Benefits for Unionized Workers

      Two newspapers on Sunday published articles related to unionized workers' employer-sponsored health care benefits. Summaries of the articles appear below.

• The New York Times on Sunday examined federal bankruptcy Judge William Howard's decision to allow coal company Horizon Natural Resources to eliminate company-sponsored health insurance benefits for about 3,800 union coal miners and their dependents in West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana. According to the Times, the Horizon case "marks the first time bankruptcy law has been used to void union contracts in the coal industry." The case has become a campaign issue in West Virginia, with the United Mine Workers of America union -- which has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) -- asserting that the administration of President Bush has opposed measures that would protect retiree benefits and has prompted calls from some West Virginia legislators to restrict the use of bankruptcy laws to void union contracts. Howard said the decision was in the public interest because it would allow nonunion jobs at about 24 other mines to remain open. Bankruptcy experts said the Horizon case likely would encourage other coal companies to try to terminate some union agreements through Chapter 11 filings (Dao, New York Times, 10/24).
  
  
• The Detroit News on Sunday examined how General Motors has "forced salaried retirees to begin paying monthly premiums for health insurance and copayments for medical treatment" as the company attempts to reduce its "enormous post-retirement obligations." According to the News, GM is "in the same tenuous situation as many other major corporations that offer retiree pension plans and retiree health care" as the company has been "[s]queezed by dismal earnings" and decreasing market share. Salaried workers have "borne the brunt of GM's cost-reduction efforts" because they are not union members, according to the News (Garsten, Detroit News, 10/24).