By Doug Cunningham

The United Mine Workers of America is hailing renewal of the Abandoned Mine Lands program that guarantees health insurance for retired miners and their widows. The health care guarantee from the federal government was first made by President Harry Truman. The beneficiaries are families who worked for mines no longer in operation. The program was designed to make sure that miners who risked their health providing coal for the nation’s electricity and industrial needs had their health insurance needs covered in retirement.