Barron Leads the Charge for NYC Retirees

NYC Council Member Charles Barron inside City Hall chambers where he introduced legislation to protect traditional Medicare benefits for municipal retirees. Photo by Bob Hennelly

By Bob Hennelly

New York City Council Member Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) has introduced the legislation that’s been sought by New York City municipal retirees to preserve their access to traditional Medicare.

The retired city civil servants are resisting a plan by Mayor Adams and the Municipal Labor Committee to force them onto an Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan which the administration says will generate $600 million in annual savings for the city.

“We don’t want to go from not paying premiums, not paying copayments and being accepted everywhere” to a Medicare Advantage Plan “that is not accepted in many places,” Barron told his colleagues. Barron also cited Aetna’s role in insuring the trans-Atlantic slave trade. “Aetna apologized but said they would not provide reparations,” Barron said.

In recent court filings Aetna reported that out of 82 million Medicare Advantage claims, 3.4 percent required prior authorization with less than half a percent denied.

Council Member Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn) also spoke in support of the measure from the floor. “Municipal retirees served our city honorably throughout the years and we owe to them to maintain the healthcare coverage they were promised, and I am excited to join this bill as co-sponsor,” Hanif said.

In a letter to every member of the City Council, District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, who is also a co-chair of the MLC, blasted Barron’s bill as being “irresponsible” because it “fails to identify how the new Medigap Plan will be funded” and “undermines” the ability of the city’s unions “to collectively bargain on behalf of our members.”

The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees have been fighting the forced migration to the for-profit Aetna plan in court since Mayor de Blasio was in office. They insist the shift will lead to pre-authorizations and the loss of continuity to the healthcare if retirees existing providers, as they allege in their court papers, don’t participate in the Medicare Advantage Plan.

Barron confirmed to Work-Bites he had bi-partisan support from ten co-sponsors and that he expects that number to grow despite the lack of support for the measure from City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Back in March NYCOPSR wrote Adams requesting she take up the legislation.

“We’ve read the letter, but we are leaving this conversation to the parties to collectively bargain at this time,” Adams said in response to a question from Work-Bites about the retiree bill. “We are not considering anything at the moment, but we are still listening to the various parties involved.”

Before the City Council’s June 22 State Meeting, several hundred retirees rallied and they filled the City Council public gallery to witness Barron introducing their legislation once the meeting was underway.

“We are totally excited it finally happened,” Marianne Pizzitola, retired FDNY EMT and president of NYCOPSR told Work-Bites. “Now, we need to get to 34 [Council Members] to be veto-proof.” 

“I think it’s about time,” Council Member Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told Work-Bites after Barron introduced the retirees’ legislation. “We need to protect our retirees and this bill is going to be part of what maintains the insurance that they need.”

NYC DOT retiree Fred Newton was in the Council gallery to see the action and told Work-Bites he appreciated Barron’s efforts on the behalf of retirees. “I expect management to try and shaft us but it’s a lot more depressing to think the unions would help management shaft us instead of fighting management,” Newton said.

Mike Antwerp is a retired New York City teacher who has been active in the opposition to the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan and was also in the gallery. He told Work-Bites he believed the upcoming City Council primary on June 27 was giving retirees some leverage.

“They finally started to come around,” Antwerp said. “We have been strategizing to support their opponents if they were up for election and they don’t support us and that seems to have made a difference with some of them jumping on our bandwagon.”

City Council Member Ari Kagan (R-Brooklyn) whose consistently supported the retirees’ campaign to resist the shift to Aetna Medicare Advantage, said for many of his colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, acting independently from the City Council Speaker could be problematic.

“The Speaker controls the agenda,” Kagan told Work-Bites. “The Speaker controls the budget. The Speaker controls when your legislation is going to get a vote—whether it’s going to get a vote. She is the second most powerful person after the Mayor.”