McCain campaign-stop factory ceases paying health premiums, tells no one

BY DANIEL TENCER
RAWSTORY
Published: September 6, 2009
Updated 10 hours ago

When then-presidential candidate John McCain declared Pennsylvania’s Turbine Airfoil Designs an example of “both the opportunities and the challenges that face our manufacturing base,” he probably had little inkling that one of those “challenges” would be the company’s decision to stop paying the premiums on its employees’ health care — without telling the employees.

Until they received a letter from Capital BlueCross in March of this year informing them that their insurance had been canceled, employees at the aircraft parts manufacturer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, thought their insurance policies were valid, because their insurance cards continued to be accepted.

But, in fact, TAD had stopped paying health insurance premiums in October, 2008, even as employees continued to see health premiums deducted from their paychecks.
In the nearly half-year-long intermittent period, some employees racked up health care bills of more than $10,000 — bills that they are now on the hook for themselves, the local CBS affiliate first reported.

26Dems Editorial Comment: Refer to 26dems posting of Pennsylvania newspaper's original story here. On the campaign trail, John McCain touted this company as an example of the kind of company that he intended to help. Click here to watch a You Tube video of candidate John McCain's Harrisburg speech. According to RAWSTORY the CBS story reports that the company Turbine Airfoil Designs manufactured parts of the aircraft flown by John McCain in Vietnam.

Continue reading here for more detail about the state investigation.