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By Joe Maniscalco

Forget what New York City Mayor Eric Adams told municipal retirees in the Bronx opposing the Medicare Advantage push earlier this week—a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan is, indeed, part of his administration’s “comprehensive approach” to remaking retiree health care before he leaves office. 

“Skyrocketing health care costs pose huge challenges for the city as we strive to continue to provide high-quality health care without premiums, a rarity among employers nationwide,” a City Hall spokesperson told Work-Bites  in an email this week. “The Medicare Advantage plan is part of a comprehensive approach to tackle this challenge, and it includes a procurement for a new plan covering both active and pre-Medicare retirees, which is intended to save over $1 billion per year.”

Just a day before, retirees in the Bronx fighting to retain the non-privatized Medicare benefits they’ve earned after decades on the job, asked the mayor point blank: “Why can’t you help us?”

“That’s my goal,” Mayor Adams responded, boasting that he is “the best person to be at the helm right now.” 

But that, in fact, is not the mayor’s goal. Instead, his goal as stated is to continue pushing a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan on 250,000 municipal retirees—and also spending taxpayer dollars arguing the case in court where he’s already lost nine consecutive decisions. 

On Thursday, a judge lifted a stay allowing the city to begin imposing copays on retirees effective January 1, 2025. The New York Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] is now considering its options to appeal the decision.

“While we understand concerns about any change in health care coverage, the city's plan—which was negotiated closely with and supported by the Municipal Labor Committee—would improve upon retirees’ current plans and save $600 million annually. We will let the appeal process play out in court, and we hope to implement this plan and achieve these much-needed savings,” the City Hall spokesperson concluded their statement to Work-Bites this week. 

During his exchange with municipal retirees in the Bronx earlier in the week, Mayor Adams also bragged about bringing “everyone into the room” after he was elected, and asking the Office of Management and Budget [OMB], Office of Labor Relations [OLR], and the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] “what is going on” with retiree health care?

Not invited into that room, however, where any of the groups and organizations—The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR]; Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations [COMRO]; Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] and others—who actually represent municipal retirees themselves.

That was the case then—and it remains the case now. Work-Bites asked the City Hall spokesperson if the mayor would accept NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola’s latest request to meet—but they declined to address the question.

"The Mayor should instruct his Law Department to drop all four cases and then call Speaker Adams to prioritize the passage of the bill that died in committee earlier this year,” COMRO President Stu Eber told Work-Bites. “He should then meet with the representatives of the major retiree advocacy groups, including COMRO, CROC and NYCOPSR, to work on a health care plan that provides real savings to the taxpayers while protecting retirees' health care from the avaricious for-profit insurance giants.”

Eber further said that Mayor Adams continues to misrepresent the “financial issue” ostensibly being used to justify pushing municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare care Advantage plan.

“The $600 million annual savings presumed by ending our Supplemental Medicare coverage do not go back to the City's General Fund as a savings to the taxpayers,” Eber said. “The money goes from the General Fund to the Health Stabilization Fund, which is controlled by the unions, not the City Council. Privatizing Medicare will not save the taxpayers $600 million dollars or improve healthcare. Both premises have been proven false in court.”

At this point, Pizzitola says Mayor Eric Adams is flat-out lying about Medicare Advantage.

“[This week], Mayor Adams spoke with a group of retired municipal workers in the Bronx about the City’s scheme to force retirees into Medicare Advantage, a dangerous, privatized, for-profit alternative to the public Medicare program,” Pizzitola told Work-Bites in an email. “The Mayor’s press office then followed up with a statement, claiming that Medicare Advantage—which is not accepted by many doctors and does not cover many critical services—would “improve upon” retirees’ current healthcare (traditional Medicare plus a supplement) and save the City money. The Mayor is lying. Multiple state court judges have closely inspected the City’s Medicare Advantage plan and concluded that it would threaten the lives, and violate the healthcare rights, of hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled retired City workers. And the director of the City’s Independent Budget Office testified that it would not save the City a dime.”

Pizzitola also took the mayor to task for attempting earlier this week in the Bronx to absolve himself of responsibility for the Medicare Advantage push, “claiming that he inherited a problem created by the United Federation of Teachers (“UFT”) and his predecessor [Bill de Blasio].”

“Although it is true that the City’s effort to force retirees into Medicare Advantage predates Mayor Adams, he has been spearheading that effort ever since he assumed office two years ago,” Pizzitola said. “And, despite the mayor’s attempt to blame the NYC Law Department for appealing the many court decisions stopping the Medicare Advantage plan, he is the one who has directed the City’s attorneys to do this. Mayor Adams is fully responsible for violating retirees’ rights and trying to deny them the critical healthcare benefits they earned.

“Second, Mayor Adams claimed that Medicare Advantage is necessary because it was negotiated with the MLC, an umbrella organization of City unions. However, the MLC does not, and legally cannot, represent retirees. It is unlawful—not to mention morally reprehensible—for municipal employees to collectively bargain away the healthcare rights of retirees, who are no longer members of a bargaining unit. The City has engaged in improper bargaining by using unions to negotiate raises for active employees on the backs of current retirees. Further, Mayor Adams ignores the fact that the MLC no longer supports the City’s Medicare Advantage plan.”

In June, Medicare Advantage opponents galvanized under the Retiree Advocate slate took control of the UFT’s 70,000-member Retired Teachers Chapter after a convincing electoral win over President Michael Mulgrew’s Pro-Medicare Advantage Unity Caucus.

Pizzitola says Mayor Adams and other elected officials interested in keeping their seats would do well to understand why the MLC no longer supports Medicare Advantage.

“The UFT, one of the largest members of the MLC, is the rare union that gives retirees some voting rights,” Pizzitola further told Work-Bites. “In June, angry retired teachers turned out in droves and unseated numerous UFT representatives who had supported Medicare Advantage. If Mayor Adams and other politicians continue to support Medicare Advantage, they too will see the voting power of hundreds of thousands of retired City workers who are pissed off and anxious over the loss of their healthcare benefits.”

Indeed, as Eber stated, municipal retirees fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push insist that if Mayor Adams does, in fact, support them—he will call Speaker Adrienne Adams today, and tell her to prioritize the retiree health care bill that “died in committee” earlier this year.

A spokesperson for Council Member Christopher Marte [D-District 1], a co-sponsor of that legislation, told Work-Bites that he hopes Mayor Adams “puts his words into action and makes a direct call the City Council to act.”

Meanwhile, in what they call a “rebuke” of Governor John Carney’s administration in Delaware—municipal retirees fighting their own battle against privatization in that state say they have recently “won a grand slam” and finally sent Medicare Advantage to “the trash heap.”