Volkswagen Chattanooga Workers Slammed with Crippling Health Care Costs—One in Three Struggles to Afford Auto Giant’s Subpar Insurance

Chattanooga, TN – Days after Volkswagen, the #2 automaker in the world, announced making $20.6 billion in profit in 2024, a new UAW survey of VW workers in Chattanooga reveals the devastating financial toll of VW’s substandard U.S. health care offerings.

A new comprehensive survey of nearly 1,800 Volkswagen’s Chattanooga workers paints a stark picture of a workforce burdened by inferior health care benefits and skyrocketing out-of-pocket expenses that not only lag industry standards, but have also contributed to widespread financial hardship, debt, and, in many cases, a decision to forgo necessary medical care altogether.

Nearly three out of four (73%) Volkswagen Chattanooga workers reported either being forced to choose between paying for medical care and other essential expenditures like rent and food or having borrowed money or declared bankruptcy to cover medical expenses; a rate that rises to four out of every five parents and caregivers with children on a VW health insurance plan.

The full report is available HERE. The 2025 health care survey of VW Chattanooga workers paints a dire picture of the real-world impact of the company’s substandard plans. Key findings include:

• 67% reported being forced to choose between paying for medical care and other basic necessities, such as rent, utilities, and food.
• 58% admitted to borrowing money—via credit cards, loans, 401(k) withdrawals, or from family and friends—or filing for bankruptcy due to medical expenses.
• 57% currently have outstanding medical debt, including accounts in collections and wage garnishments.
• 18% of survey respondents rely on publicly-funded TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, to insure their children – allowing VW to shift their responsibility to employees on to TN taxpayers.
• 29% have faced financial hardship specifically due to medical bills from a workplace injury.
• 20% have been forced to take on a second job simply to pay for their medical bills.

In addition to completing the survey, hundreds of VW workers surveyed shared personal stories about being forced to skip urgently necessary medical care and the extreme financial strain they’ve experienced due to VW’s lower standards.

• One VW worker in the Battery Department shared that: “My wife is disabled so I am the only one working. She goes to the doctor when she needs to, but I have dental work that I have needed for almost 2 years and have not done due to the expense.”
• A VW assembly worker reported: “I have had to forgo medical care due to the costs even though I pay for insurance, and I pay over a hundred dollars a month for my prescription.”
• Another VW assembly worker said: “I went to the ER due to an illness last year—I couldn’t breathe. Bill was way too expensive, and I received 3 to 4 total. It hurt my finances tremendously as I had to figure out how to pay for my other bills that have gone up due to inflation.”
• “At my last job I had better health care where I only had to pay $25 to see my primary doctor versus now it costs me $75 a visit until I hit my deductible,” said another VW worker. “Then two years ago I had a health scare where I had to go see a hematologist and when I got the bill I had to pay $500 out of pocket because I did not meet my deductible yet – versus at my last job, when I had to see a specialist, it only cost me a dime, and I was working for a much smaller company than Volkswagen.”
• One VW worker said, “I’ve worked other jobs to make sure I can get my medical bills paid, but not now. Now I barely get my deductible paid and I don’t get to use my insurance because it’s time to start a new year, so I’m paying the deductible every year for my doctors’ visits and paying my monthly insurance for insurance I don’t get to use because of the deductible I have to reach before my insurance will cover anything. I have to have something major come up and pay it off before my insurance starts to cover my bills. It’s ridiculous and not right. I’m used to just paying a co-pay and everything else is covered, but when I started at Volkswagen all that changed and I started paying a lot out of my pocket. Yea I make more money here, but when you add in what I pay in for medical, I make less than I did at my last jobs.”

“Volkswagen should be ashamed that the U.S. workers who have helped build their massive profits are being forced to choose between putting food on the table and having health insurance,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “VW is the #2 automaker in the world, but they aren’t meeting the union auto standards in America – even of smaller and less profitable employers in the same state.  Although VW espouses respect for worker rights, they have egregiously violated federal U.S. labor law with an illegal shift reduction attempt in Chattanooga, where they should be ramping production up, not cutting it down. The CEO of VW got $11 million last year, and their shareholders got billions; now, American workers are demanding the fair standards and excellent health coverage we deserve.”

Volkswagen’s U.S. workforce faces lower health care and workplace safety standards compared to the benefits provided to employees in other countries, effectively creating a second tier of workers in the American South. Survey data reveals that VW’s health plan is so costly and inadequate that more than one in ten workers opt out entirely, with some stating they simply cannot afford it. Many employees also noted that Volkswagen lags behind its competitors in providing quality health care, despite the company’s substantial profits.

“Volkswagen workers should not have to start a GoFundMe in order to pay their medical bills,” said Amanda Muellemann, an assembly worker who could not afford a necessary surgery and had to go to extreme lengths to pay for her care.

In 2024, Volkswagen reported $20.6 billion in profits, bringing their four-year profit total to $92.4 billion — a 38% increase. Despite this, the 4,000 workers who build its vehicles in Chattanooga are still waiting for a fair contract that brings them up to par with industry standards – and are using the fight for the first-ever union contract at a foreign car manufacturer in America as an opportunity to force VW to reinvest in their U.S. workforce.