By Joe Maniscalco

UFT President Michael Mulgrew may have officially backed out on the City of New York’s ongoing campaign to push 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven “Medicare Dis-Advantage” health insurance they do not want—he still insists it doesn’t pose the threat opponents say it does.

What’s more, Mulgrew says allegations to the contrary are “patently false” and the retiree lawsuit aimed at blocking embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his administration from going ahead and stripping former municipal workers of their existing Medicare-backed coverage "spreads harmful misinformation.”

Mulgrew was one of the main architects of the privatization plan which traces its roots back some 10 years ago during the Bill de Blasio administration as a way of securing long overdue raises for active working teachers and saving the city a supposed $600 million in annual savings.

In June, however, the longtime UFT head abruptly hit the brakes and withdrew the union’s support for privatization after the anti-Medicare Advantage activists comprising the Retiree Advocate/UFT slate crushed the entrenched Unity Caucus and seized control of the 75,000-member UFT Retired Teachers Chapter [RTC].

On July 22, newly-elected RTC Leader Bennett Fischer sent a letter to Mulgrew and UFT attorney Beth A. Norton requesting the union inform the New York State Court of Appeals that the UFT had, in fact, withdrawn its support for the profit-driven Medicare Advantage push.

The high court is still considering whether or not to allow the Adams administration to go ahead and force municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan run by troubled insurance industry giant Aetna.

“Now that the UFT no longer supports the City’s MA program, the UFT should correct the record and clarify for the Court that it has withdrawn its support, Fischer wrote. “Filing an amicus brief in support of retirees would be an effective way to achieve this. At the very least, the UFT should file a letter—or ask the [Municipal Labor Committee] to file a letter—notifying the Court that the UFT no longer supports the City’s MA program.”

The UFT sent the letter to the high court on August 15—but not the amicus brief. Five days later, Heather Davis, deputy clerk for the New York State Court of Appeals, informed Norton and the UFT that “only authorized submissions by parties or qualified amici curiae regarding pending matters may be accepted for review by the Court” and promptly returned the union’s letter un-submitted.

Mulgrew sent a letter to Fischer on the same day the UFT letter went out to the New York State Court of Appeals, explaining to him that despite being “firmly against a Medicare Advantage plan for our retirees,” the union “cannot, however, support this lawsuit, as there are many untrue allegations about the proposed AETNA plan.”

“For example,” Mulgrew wrote, “it claimed that retirees would be denied access to doctors, prior authorizations would prevent retirees from receiving needed treatment and that retirees would be subject to high out-of-pocket costs. These allegations are patently false and the UFT would never have agreed to a plan that had this effect on our members.”

Mulgrew further stated, “We cannot sign on to a lawsuit that spreads harmful misinformation.”

Fischer was incredulous. The next day, he wrote back to Mulgrew expressing his appreciation for the UFT’s reversal on the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan—but wondering how in the world the UFT head could “continue to assert that the lawsuit has untrue allegations about the AETNA plan when those allegations have been upheld in both Manhattan Supreme Court and the NY State Appellate Division.”

“It seems to me,” Fischer continued, “that at a certain point—after two courts have ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and after AETNA's lawyers admitted in sworn testimony that the allegations you claim to be untrue are actually true—you must realize that what you call ‘untrue allegations’ are proven facts.”

Despite his steadfast refusal to do just that—Mulgrew nevertheless insisted in his previous letter to Fischer that the UFT has been very clear that “no matter what happens in the courts, we are firmly against a Medicare Advantage plan for our retirees.”

“Hallelujah!” Fischer responded. “Can I take this to mean that you are against any Medicare Advantage plan being pushed onto retirees, not just the AETNA plan? That is fantastic. So, then please, please, please (as the Godfather of Soul so beautifully sang) use the UFT's lobbying arm to support legislation in the New York City Council, and in the NY State legislature, that would prevent that kind of a move from ever happening to our public service retirees.”

Fischer and the rest of the RTC are still waiting for a response from Mulgrew.

Members of the RTC had planned to carry “No Medicare Advantage” signs during New York City’s Labor Day Parade up 5th Avenue on September 7—but Mulgrew put the kibosh on those plans in the eleventh hour—leaving RTC marchers without the signs they hoped to be carrying. 

That prompted New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola and other members of the organization—who had already completed the parade route on a Staten Island Ferry float made by the Masters, Mates and Pilots union called the “Dorothy Day”—to circle back and march with the RTC carrying their own signs denouncing the profit-driven Medicare Advantage push.

“Nine wins and two unanimous court decisions saying this [Medicare Advantage plan] was a diminishment of our benefits—and Mulgrew is still saying we’re lying,” Pizzitola told Work-Bites.

Work-Bites posed some of the same questions Fischer had for Mulgrew, and this week the UFT president responded in an email.

"The union would not have agreed to any diminishment of health coverage for retirees; unfortunately, the city's litigation strategy in this case did not include refuting allegations to the contrary,” Mulgrew told Work-Bites. “We dropped out of negotiations for a new plan when the administration proved more interested in cutting its costs than honestly working with us to provide high-quality healthcare to city workers. As always, we are willing to do the hard work of fighting to maintain our benefits and keep high-quality, premium-free health care for all our members."

As it stands, Fischer says Mulgrew’s “reversal” on the “Medicare Dis-Advantage” push still threatening to upend municipal retirees’ existing health care simply has “no teeth.”

“It’s nice as far as it goes—but we would like him to do more,” Fischer told Work-Bites.

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