The health care busts that follow mining’s boom-time benefits

Good mining jobs with good benefits can counterintuitively hurt access to care.

As a mining family, the Paweleks worried little about their health care. Mike’s job as a gold miner provided the family with good insurance, and the medical clinic in town run by the mines was affordable. When Mike and Patty needed surgeries for bad knees, the mine paid for travel and lodging in Salt Lake City, 250 miles from their home.

That was before Mike, 64, was diagnosed with cervical dystonia, a rare neurological condition that causes violent tremors, ending his 32-year career with Newmont Mining Corp. in 2019.

The Paweleks lost their primary income. They also lost their health insurance — and the robust health care access it afforded. In other parts of the country, Mike’s disability insurance and Patty’s Obamacare plan could have easily gotten them a primary care doctor. But in mining communities like Elko County in northeastern Nevada, mine insurance is so important to the local health care infrastructure that many without it have to fight for basic care.

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Mining companies offer good jobs with good benefits that can counterintuitively damage health care access. Health systems can grow dependent on those insurance plans to survive, and the benefits are in some cases so good that providers are reluctant to serve others in the community. It’s the consequence of a national health care system that feeds off employer-sponsored health insurance to turn a profit, and, as a result, warps itself to meet the needs of those who have it.