For much of the first half of the century the United Mine Workers (UMW) was the largest, most important, most powerful, and most progressive union in the United States. Among its many accomplishments was that it was one of the first to bargain for and win employer-financed health benefits. Health care was critically important to miners, many of whom were seriously injured on the job and by middle age were often disabled by black lung disease. In the isolated, rural mine patches, quality health care was rarely available. In the days before the organization of the UMW's Welfare and Retirement Funds, many miners found that the only health care that was available came from the company doctor. This medical practice was usually substandard and was one of the many ways the operators exercised power over the life of the miners, discouraging union and political organizing.