'We had no warning:' Wife of GM employee on strike wakes up from surgery without insurance

SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WZTV) — Thousands of workers are still on strike as the United Auto Workers Union and General Motors still have not reached a deal. To make matters worse, the UAW announced GM is cutting health insurance for those striking.

The news is devastating for families, as they now have to worry about how they're going to pay for everything from medication to major surgery. Union leaders telling FOX 17 News members went in for cancer treatments and to pick up prescriptions on Monday and that's how they found out they were uninsured.

Laura Prater heard the news when she woke up from a $40,000 stomach operation.

"All of a sudden I am risking getting this major hospital bill we honestly couldn't afford,” says Prater, whose husband Clayton is an electrician at the GM plant in Spring Hill.

Up until yesterday, the Prater family of five were carried on a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan through General Motors, but not anymore.

"It makes me feel terrible,” says Prater. “Before I started working for GM, I was Army. I'm a veteran so things like integrity, honesty those things mean something to me.”

Clayton is one of 3,500 GM workers taking to the streets from the Spring Hill plant, one of nearly 50,000 nationwide amid contract negotiations. He says cutting off health care coverage to his family during the strike is a low blow.

"I expect my insurance to be dropped and I will deal with that through the union, but my wife's a pawn and that doesn't sit right with me,” says Prater.

Despite the strike, the Prater family thought they'd be covered until October 1st. Turns out, their insurance got cut off hours before Laura's surgery.

“We had no warning and in fact, I even verified last week before the surgery is this still a go?” says Laura.

In a statement to FOX 17 News, General Motors representatives said in part:

“We understand strikes are difficult and disruptive to families. While on strike, some benefits shift to being funded by the union's strike fund, and in this case hourly employees are eligible for union-paid COBRA so their health care benefits can continue."

The UAW told FOX 17 News Tuesday it will be providing insurance for its members and their families. Signups will be held at the Spring Hill headquarters Wednesday and Thursday.