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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
CHICAGO—A section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that makes it easier for coal miners to tap benefits for black lung disease has survived an employer’s constitutional challenge.
In a ruling last week in Jacqueline J. Keene vs. Consolidation Coal Co. et al., the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the miner’s widow can press her argument that she is entitled to survivor benefits.
While the nation’s health care reform law mandates a host of changes, a lesser-known section of the act established a presumption that a mine worker with 15 years of service who contracted a lung disease contracted it on the job.
PPACA made the presumption retroactive to claims filed after Jan. 1, 2005.
In the case at hand, Consolidation Coal argued that the law’s retroactive nature violates the due process and taking clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
An administrative law judge ruled that Ms. Keene did not prove that her husband died of black lung disease and denied benefits.
The Chicago-based appeals court disagreed. Among other findings, a three-judge panel said the U.S. Supreme Court already has rejected arguments that the federal Black Lung Benefits Act violates due process because it imposes retroactive liability on coal mine operators.
The appeals court remanded the case to the administrative law judge to determine if Ms. Keene is eligible for benefits, and said the Supreme Court previously concluded that “the imposition of liability for the effects of disabilities bred in the past is justified as a rational measure to spread the costs of the employees’ disabilities to those who have profited from the fruits of their labor—the operators and the coal consumers.”