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ARE THESE GUYS CRAZY!?! ADAMS KEEPS PUSHING MEDICARE ADVANTAGE IN NYC
DESPITE LATEST COURT DEFEAT  
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Joe Maniscalco
May 22, 2024
Work-Bites
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_ The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division May 21
delivered a unanimous decision permanently enjoining New York City
from eliminating retirees’ existing health insurance and
automatically enrolling them in a new Aetna Medicare Advantage plan _

Despite another loss in court, the City of New York, under the
leadership of Mayor Eric Adams, will continue to try and push 250,000
municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health
insurance plan., Work-Bites

 

The City of New York’s decision to keep trying to push 250,000
municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health
insurance plan after yet another crushing court defeat on Tuesday has
convinced many in the fight that Mayor Eric Adams and his
privatization allies must be crazy.

“Yesterday was a great day. Retirees won our case again,” retired
public school teacher and Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee
[CROC] member Sarah Shapiro told Work-Bites. “After spending two
months deliberating, the court came down with a ruling in our favor.
Yet, the city still vows to appeal again. Will the mayor and our union
misleaders in the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] ever learn? Insanity
is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different
outcome—these guys are insane! We vow to keep fighting!”

The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Judicial
Department on May 21, delivered its unanimous decision affirming an
earlier ruling
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Judge Lyle E. Frank permanently enjoining New York City from
eliminating retirees’ existing health insurance and automatically
enrolling them in a new Aetna Medicare Advantage plan.

Law Department spokesperson Nicholas Paolucci, nonetheless,
immediately released a statement declaring, “The city will seek the
Court of Appeal’s review of today’s ruling. The city’s plan,
which was negotiated closely with and supported by the Municipal Labor
Committee, would improve retirees’ current plans and save $600
million annually. This is particularly important at a time when we are
already facing significant fiscal and economic challenges.”

The purported $600 million in savings the City of New York says it’s
chasing is a spurious figure that has long been disputed. Last year,
Brad Lander, the city’s chief financial officer, told municipal
retirees that pushing them into a profit-driven Aetna Medicare
Advantage plan would maybe save the city $300 or $400 million.
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then refused to register the Aetna Medicare Advantage contract Mayor
Adams had already inked with the insurance industry giant.

“The City should go back to the table and negotiate a fair deal with
the Unions—making them sell off their retirees for a raise is
criminal,” Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City
Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees, Tweeted yesterday. “Using
the value of our benefits to finance theirs—ugly. We have had to
fight this for three years and won nine times. We made our deals. We
lived up to them. The City should live up to its promise.”

Former city manager and cancer survivor Roberta Gonzalez 
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Work-Bites that she remains concerned about New York City municipal
retiree health care—and “Medicare’s ability to survive.”

“I’m pretty sure the MLC’s big three—UFT President Michael
Mulgrew, DC37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, and Chairman Harry
Nespoli—are not done with us,” she said. “And the mayor
doesn’t seem to take kindly to criticism—and losing this battle.
From what I see, he’s a sore loser.”

According to reports, Mulgrew actively avoided questions about retiree
health care and completely ignored the Appellate court’s ruling
during a UFT Retired Teachers Chapter meeting also held on Tuesday,
May 21.

“The UFT retiree chapter meeting was a waste of time,” Shapiro
told Work-Bites. “Mulgrew and [Chapter head] Tom Murphy did not
utter a word about the retirees’ latest win in court yesterday. They
would not call on any of us retirees who are vocal about our
opposition to their plan to switch us into Medicare Disadvantage. Then
they ended the meeting early to avoid our questions—that’s why we
are working hard to replace them and the Unity minions by Retiree
Advocate in the current retiree chapter election. Retiree Advocate
will fight for our Medicare coverage and will never silence and berate
the rank and file.”

 
Retired New York City municipal workers have scored yet another court
victory in their ongoing efforts to prevent the city from switching
them to a cost-saving private plan and stripping their Medigap
coverage.    (Richard Khavkine/The Chief)
Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations President Stu Eber believes
the city will, indeed, file an appeal “rather than address the real
issues of restructuring health care benefits that COMRO and others
raised three years ago before the original law suit.”

“Now is the time for the state legislature to pass the Retiree
Healthcare Bill and the City Council to form the blue ribbon panel
requested two years ago,” he said.

Yesterday’s court victory wasn’t the only win for New York City
municipal retirees battling back against the Medicare Advantage push.
New York State senators also advanced legislation aimed at prohibiting
public employers from diminishing retirees’ existing health care
benefits statewide.

The women-led New York City Council under Speaker Adrienne Adams,
however, continues to stifle legislation also aimed at protecting
retirees’ Medicare and Medigap benefits at the local level.

IMPACT ON OTHER RETIREES?

Retired New York City Transit workers fighting their own union’s
campaign to push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan
believe Tuesday’s Appellate victory for New York City municipal
retirees is also a big boost for them as well.

“It’s a big win,” TWU Local 100 Retirees President Lloyd Archer
told Work-Bites. “Our lawyer already said it will help because
written into our contract is there will be no diminishment of our
health care. I do believe it will help our case. This is just the
start for us.”

TWU Local 100 Retirees challenging the Medicare Advantage push have
their own court date set for June 10.

“We continue to win in the courts and wonder if the city and the MLC
will ever reverse course and allow retirees to retain their
traditional Medicare and supplement,” DC 37 Retirees Association
member Neal Frumkin told Work-Bites.

The DC 37 Retirees Association remains under administratorship and its
officers suspended after AFSCME—the organization’s parent
union—seized control in February.
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action came after the group steadfastly refused to quit backing the
New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees’ efforts in
court. 

Frumkin, however, doesn’t believe this latest court victory will
impact AFSCME’s decision to takeover the DC 37 Retirees Association.

“They maintain that the Medicare Advantage debacle had nothing to do
with the administratorship,” he said. “We are very upset about the
conduct of AFSCME. We are now under a dictatorship without any
pretense of democratic trade unionism.”

DC 37 Retirees Association members have appealed the administratorship
and are taking “appropriate action within AFSCME.” But they
aren’t ruling out also going to court, as well.

Harry Weiner, a retiree from the New York City Housing Authority, told
Work-Bites it is time for the both Mayor Adams and the heads of the
MLC to “cease and desist.”

“To stop spending taxpayer dollars and union dues, respectively, on
endless litigation against retirees,” he said. “A blue ribbon
panel containing all stakeholders should be formed to find alternative
health benefits cost savings sought by the city.”

Lander also said this week that it’s “time for all parties to come
to the table to identify creative and effective solutions.”

“I was and remain seriously concerned about the privatization of
Medicare plans, overfilling by insurance companies, and barriers to
care under Medicare Advantage,” the comptroller said in statement
following the May 21, Appellate Court ruling. “It is vital that all
seniors—and all New Yorkers—get quality health coverage as a basic
human right.”

At the same time, however, Lander also warned, “we cannot ignore
that there are real cost questions facing the city when it comes to
health care.”

The City of New York has been funding municipal retirees’ Medigap
supplement—the percentage not covered by traditional Medicare—as a
condition of employment for well over a half century.

Weiner, meanwhile, also urged UFT retired teachers to cast their
ballots for the entire Retiree Advocate slate.

“This ruling is all the more reason for members of the UFT Retiree
Chapter not to vote for the Tom Murphy/Unity slate in their current
election. They shamelessly parroted Michael Mulgrew’s lies
about—and advocacy of—the Medicare Disadvantage plan,” he said.

* Retirees
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* Healthcare
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* Medicare
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* Medicare Advantage
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* New York City
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* Mayor Eric Adams
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* Aetna Medicare Advantage
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* privatization
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* Marianne Pizzitola
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* New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees
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* UFT
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* DC 37 AFSCME
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* New York City Municipal Labor Committee
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* Municipal Labor Committee
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