New York City Retirees Are ‘Disgusted’ With Eric Adams
New York City municipal retirees fighting Mayor Eric Adams' ongoing push for Medicare Advantage hold a "die-in" in front of Aetna's offices at One Soho Square. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been hit with a 57-page, 5-count federal indictment, been called unfit to serve, and urged to resign—but he’s still determined to push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven health insurance plan experts and the courts say diminishes existing Medicare benefits.
Deputy Press Secretary Liz Garcia told Work-Bites this week that the Mayor’s Office didn’t have anything further to say about the Medicare Advantage push, other than to reiterate the claim that the profit-driven scheme would improve upon retirees’ current coverage and save the city $600 million annually.
That’s following Monday’s action outside City Hall which saw hundreds of New York City municipal retirees gather to denounce the ongoing Medicare Advantage push and then march on Aetna’s Manhattan headquarters at One Soho Square where they held a “die-in” to demand the troubled insurance industry giant withdraw from contract negotiations with Adams and his administration.
Roberta Gonzalez went to work for the City of New York in 1973 when she was just 19-years-old, and remained on the job through some of the worst calamities this town has ever faced before retiring in 2011. She’s now battling lung and thyroid cancer related to the toxic 9/11 cloud that spewed out of Ground Zero for months back in 2001.
New York City retiree and 9/11-related cancer survivor Roberta Gonzalez takes the microphone outside City Hall.
Like many who once again hit the streets this week to stop the Medicare Advantage push, Gonzalez stayed on the job through all the challenges and threats to her personal wellbeing largely because of the original Medicare and city-paid MediGap Supplement coverage she was promised when she signed up for municipal service.
“This is unconscionable,” Gonzalez said on Monday. “When current workers see how easy it is for the city to go back on its commitment—to bait and switch with unkept promises—how will those workers feel about making any necessary sacrifices for the city? Who will they trust? Who will be compelled to act to protect the city and its people when the city shows that it does not uphold its end of the bargain?”
Marianne Pizzitola, 9/11 first-responder and president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, reminded protesters that municipal retirees didn’t have the benefit of working remotely when chaos and disaster struck the Big Apple—and once again called on Mayor Adams to abandon the Medicare Advantage push and quit fighting retirees in court.
New York City municipal retirees leave City Hall Park and begin their march on Aetna's One Soho Square offices.
Other demands on the mayor include supporting city and state legislation further codifying municipal retirees’ existing Medicare and MediGap benefits.
“We ran this city,” Pizzitola said. “We built this city. We rebuilt this city—and unfortunately now, after we made our deals and left our city agencies in retirement, they are trying to re-negotiate the deal that was made to us—and it’s well too late.”
Retired New York City schoolteacher Virginia Hill marched along Sixth Avenue with a colleague and talked about their feelings towards the sitting mayor and former police officer.
“We’re pretty disgusted because he’s actually gone against what he said when he was running for mayor—that he was gonna protect our healthcare,” Hill told Work-Bites. “Then he gets into office—and he flips. This is just another thing that he’s done to jeopardize city workers. He should know better because he was a city worker.”
Marches near the Spring Street park outside Aetna's One Soho Square offices.
Mayor Adams signed a Medicare Advantage contract with Aetna last year, and after losing a string of court cases blocking its implementation, he still hopes a pending New York State Court of Appeals decision will give him the ruling that he wants.
A retired city health educator requesting anonymity carried a “Radical Elders” banner along the route and said if the mayor was rally smart— he’d say, “Listen, I’m not appealing any more—and you guys deserve your traditional Medicare.”
“That’s what he said before got elected,” the retired librarian marching alongside her said. “Then he changed his tune as soon as he got in—changed his tune one-hundred-percent.”
“He needs to change his tune again—and then we need to kick him out,” The retired city health educator continued.
Retired NYPD Lieutenant Jack LaTorre marched along the route and expressed his dismay with a mayor he’s always admired.
“This is just an example of how many people are being hurt by his constantly appealing all these court cases that we’ve won. I don’t understand,” LaTorre told Work-Bites. “I’ve always admired Eric Adams…his fighting spirit. I admired him even though he’s in quite a jam right now where he says, ‘I’m not gonna step down, I’m gonna step up.’ That’s what we’re doing—we’re not gonna shut down, and we’re not gonna shut up.”
Aetnah! New York City retirees jeer Mayor Eric Adams' Medicare Advantage pact with troubled insurance industry giant Aetna.
Retirees protesting the Medicare Advantage contract Mayor Adams signed with Aetna were restricted to the pocket park located across the street from the insurance industry giant’s offices located at One Soho Square. But a group of them were able to hold a theatrical “die-in” dramatizing the deadly costs of Medicare Advantage’s limited pools of participating physicians and delays and denials of care.
“Any publicity about the horrors of Medicare Advantage and the privatization of our Medicare helps our cause, Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member and retired UFT teacher Sarah Shapiro told Work-Bites. “We don’t want these private plans. They are a danger to our health.”
Work-Bites made repeated attempts to reach Aetna’s corporate media relations office but no one picked up, and the voicemail box was full.
Monday’s action in New York City was part of a larger effort against Medicare Advantage held nationwide on Sept. 30. New York City Retirees fighting the Medicare Advantage push are set to return to City Hall with another rally on October 10.