By Joe Maniscalco

The powerful political machine bent on bulldozing New York City municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage program is kicking into high gear ahead of a special “People’s Hearing & Rally” set for Wednesday, May 24, outside City Hall.

New York City Council members have reportedly been warned they risk losing coveted committee posts and valuable discretionary funding should they decide to try and cross Speaker Adrienne Adams and support retirees fighting to retain their traditional Medicare benefits.

“They are being told if they support our legislation and go against the Speaker they will lose their committee positions and they will lose their discretionary funding,” FDNY EMS Retirees Association and New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] President Marianne Pizzitola told Work-Bites. “I think they’re all intimidated.”

Some of those same City Council members have also begun attacking Pizzitola and other retiree advocates themselves — attempting to blame them for everything from “wasting” retirees’ time — to “scaring them” and causing a few to pass out at the massive anti-Medicare Advantage rally held outside City Hall on April 11.

“We're not scaring them,” Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Sarah Shapiro told Work-Bites. “Retirees, especially those who are sick, have chronic health conditions, and are in their 70's, 80's and 90’s, are terrified of losing their quality healthcare and their trusted medical providers and being thrown into a Medicare Advantage plan that is focused on profits over patients. That's enough to scare us all to death!”

Retirees submitted legislation to the City Council back in December, aimed at preserving their traditional Medicare benefits. Speaker Adams, however, is refusing to allow that bill to get an intro number and come to the floor for a vote. Opponents of the bill insists it runs afoul of the Taylor law covering collective bargaining agreements and is illegal.

“They are falsely claiming our legislation is illegal — that’s the latest thing because they can’t get around it any other way,” Pizzitola says. “Let’s just say it’s illegal. We asked them how that’s so at a [recent] meeting with [Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislation and Policy] Jeff Baker and [Assistant Deputy Director] Nick Connell. We all told them their interpretation of the law is ridiculous — the Taylor law does not affect retirees. They didn’t care. They’re insisting on it.”

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration signed a Medicare Advantage contract with Aetna upending the lives of 250,000 municipal retirees and their families on March 30. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is now reviewing the agreement and has until mid-June to either officially register it, or return it to the Mayor’s Office.

Lander has already expressed doubts in conversations with retirees that the Medicare Advantage contract with Aetna will achieve the supposed $600 million savings the Mayor’s Office insists it will.

Nevertheless, Spokesperson Chloe Chik told Work-Bites, “While Comptroller Lander is deeply concerned as a matter of policy about Medicare privatization and the impacts of the change to Medicare Advantage for retiree health care outcomes, the office’s authority is limited to ensuring that public dollars are being used in accordance with applicable procurement rules. The Comptroller’s Bureau of Contract Administration will conduct a rigorous review of the contract to determine whether it was properly procured.”

According to Stu Eber, president of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations [COMRO] and past president of the Managerial Employees Association [MEA], "The fact that Aetna Medicare Advantage plans have multiple findings against them for violating a variety of laws should count in a contract award.”

“For companies like this, multi-million dollar fines are just part of their cost of doing business, and, infuriatingly, they can write it off on their taxes, so we, the taxpayers, subsidize their malfeasance,” Eber told Work-Bites. “I’m optimistic that the Comptroller will do the right thing and thoroughly evaluate Aetna's record and a possible law suit by NYCOPSR.”

Under the city charter, Mayor Eric Adams actually has the ability to ignore Lander’s finding and consider the Aetna Medicare Advantage contract officially “registered” regardless of what the comptroller ultimately decides to do.

Mayor Adam’s predecessor Bill de Blasio overrode hundreds of reviews from then NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Adams has yet to override Lander — registering the Aetna Medicare Advantage contract, should the current comptroller reject it, would be the first time he did so.

COMRO is just one of several retiree groups who have spent the last two years unsuccessfully trying to get a meeting with City officials to explore viable alternates to stripping retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits and pushing them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage program.

On this week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour on WBAI, Pizzitola told host and Work-Bites correspondent Bob Hennelly, that City Council members need to "be strong, take a stand and do the right thing — even if that means maybe losing your position, or exposing that you’re being pressured by Council leadership.”

Work-Bites has reached out to members of the New York City Council and are awaiting a response.