SOUTHERN ILLINOIS -During the past several months the plight of active UMW miners and retirees involved in an ongoing struggle to hang onto health care benefits they lost when Horizon Natural Resources filed bankruptcy has been well-documented.

However, while the process involving union miners has played out, another group of coal miners affected by the same legislation have virtually fallen through the cracks.

Russ Browning, a 73-year-old retiree who lives in West Frankfort, is one of those miners and says he can't get elected officials to even return a phone call or letter to discuss his dire situation. Browning estimated there are dozens of other former company employees for Zeigler facing the same dilemma.

Browning worked for nearly 25 years for Zeigler Coal Co. in a variety of positions, including stints at the Zeigler 4 Mine near Johnston City and also the Zeigler 11 Mine near Coulterville.

Browning retired a decade ago and said his health care benefits were "perfect" until Horizon entered the picture and purchased Zeigler Coal.

"It was a company plan and it was handled efficiently," Browning said. "I was more than happy with the coverage."

Like UMW miners, Browning was notified the bankruptcy court had canceled all debts by Horizon, which included his health care benefits.

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"I got the first notification in the mail in August last year and that was the first indication that I had that anything was wrong," Browning said. "Even then I didn't have any doubt that we would be taken care of, after all the talk and promises we had heard through the years about lifetime coverage."

The second notice from the bankruptcy court left Browning with a different view.

"I started following it closer in the newspaper and then I saw that there was a very good possibility that if the bankruptcy judge agreed to it then all retired company people would also lose health care benefits," Browning said.

Rumor turned to reality for Browning when his healthcare benefits were terminated last September. Browning said he is now covered under Medicare but his wife, Norma, is nine years younger and not yet old enough to qualify for coverage.

"If something happened to me we could handle it but with my wife it is a catastrophic problem," Browning said. "You can go to the hospital for 60 days and end up with $60,000 in medical bills. Within a matter of days we could be wiped out."

Browning said he tried a twofold plan, first trying to purchase supplemental insurance for his wife.

"It was going to cost $635 per month and pre-existing conditions were not covered so what is the use in having it?" Browning said. "And there was also a $4,000 deductible and with others you had to wait a year before pre-existing conditions were covered and then there was a bigger deductible. She has medical problems so we were told at every stop that it was doubtful if she could even get coverage anyway."

Browning said he also sought help from U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and Barack Obama, D-Chicago, and failed to get a reply from two letters sent to each. He said phone calls also were not returned.

"I also wrote to Congressman Jerry Costello when I saw that he was trying to help the coal miners in this area, but I found out very quickly that I am not considered a coal miner," Browning said, "even though I worked 23 years underground, exposed myself to a lot of dangers and breathed the dust. Yet, why is there a difference between a union employee and a company employee when it was the same judge's order that took away healthcare for all of us?"

David Gillies, a Costello spokesman, said union miners are being assisted because federal lawmakers can get assistance through the Coal Act, which was established to help UMW members.

"The Coal Act is the only reason we are able to work on behalf of the union miners," Gillies said. "In regard to the other employees, this is just another reason why Congressman Costello believes that there needs to be a national health care system. We have 45 million people in the United States without health care insurance. There are some provisions to help people on the short term but this really strikes to the point of why we need a national health care system."

Calls to Durbin were not returned.

Calling it the "absolute smartest thing he ever did," Browning opted more than a decade ago when he retired to take his retirement in one lump sum. He then rolled that over to an IRA that guarantees him a monthly income.

Others, like Bill Tate of Carterville, have not been as fortunate.

Tate, 64, is a 35-year employee with Zeigler, also non-union. Tate retired last March and has no health care coverage and is currently embroiled in trying to get his pension straightened out. He was told his pension is "frozen."

"If I would have known, I could have drawn it out earlier and taken a lump sum," Tate said. "I can't really say that I'm frustrated because I sort of expected something like this. I even told my wife not to be surprised if this happened."

Tate stressed that he is "not anti-union."

"I know there are union people struggling, too, but there are people that also worked years and years for Zeigler that are dying because of this," he said. "I mean some of these company people are hurting too and there is absolutely no help for them. It's a sad time when a man can work all his life and then a court can take it all away; all that he's worked for."

The uncertain world that Horizon miners have lived in began last August when lawyers for Horizon Natural Resources argued successfully during two bankruptcy hearings that - as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan - the Lexington-based coal company should not be held responsible for health care benefits for the union miners and retirees who had previously worked for Zeigler Coal and Old Ben Coal.

"We were included in the same problems that union miners were involved in with Horizon, but once the coverage ended, company people were forgotten," Browning said. "Up until this incident I didn't feel bad about growing old in America. I had a good retirement and health insurance but now I am really upset and disappointed. The most frustrating thing is that I don't even know where to direct my anger. Sometimes I feel like I need to direct it at that one particular bankruptcy judge and other times at the politicians - or maybe both."

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