Report: Shortfall in black lung funds could cost US taxpayers billions

A surge in young coal miners suffering black lung along with a decrease in taxes collected from coal companies could end up costing the US taxpayer.

A recent report from Taxpayers for Common Sense says residents could be responsible for $15 billion in medical costs for black lung patients by the year 2050. The U.S. Department of Labor has confirmed that shortfalls in the Black Lung Trust Fund would be covered by borrowing money from the U.S. Treasury.

(PHOTO: FILE – In this Jan. 24, 2019 file photo Dr. Brandon Crum points to the X-ray of a black lung patient at his office in Pikeville, Ky. A report released Tuesday, Dec. 10 by the Washington-based group Taxpayers for Common Sense says a cut to the tax that coal companies pay to fund the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a trust for sick miners, will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan, File)