NYC Retiree Voices: ‘Medicare Advantage Is A Complete And Total Sellout’

Retired DOT worker Fred Newton, 78, is out front as NYC municipal retirees march on MLC headquarters at 55 Water Street to protest the drive to push them into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan. Photo by Joe Maniscalco

By Joe Maniscalco

“Medicare Advantage is a complete and total sellout,” 78-year-old retired Highway Transportation Specialist Fred Newton told Work-Bites this week.

The Manhattan resident had just addressed a Dec. 21 rally outside UFT headquarters at 52 Broadway denouncing Mayor Eric Adams and Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] heads Michael Mulgrew, Henry Garrido and Harry Nespoli for continuing to push municipal workers into a scandal-plagued Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.

Now, here he was on Pearl Street passing famed Fraunces Tavern with the aid of a cane helping to lead marchers to their next stop at MLC headquarters another three blocks away.

“It’s very disgusting because retirees can’t vote in union elections,” Newton continued. “It’s not the first time DC 37 sold people down the river.”

Newton was referring to DC 37’s support of the Independent Democratic Conference or IDC a few years ago. The IDC consisted of eight State Senate Democrats who, after being elected as Dems, gave GOPers control of the upper chamber when they joined forces with Republican legislators.

Six of those IDC members, as Newton correctly pointed out, ultimately “bit the dust,” in the 2018 primaries.

“Then in the last round for mayor [DC 37] backed Mayor Adams in the primary,” he continued. “I just hope many working members say, ‘I’m gonna be a retiree in the future’ — and will vote accordingly.”

Newton, however, isn’t content to wait around for that to happen. The retired DOT employee is so upset about the dearth of democracy inside his own union and the leadership’s ongoing push for a Medicare Advantage plan retirees do not want — he is supporting new calls to divest from the union’s political action fund.

“That could hit ‘em where it hurts,” he said.