By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander isn’t gonna help Mayor Eric Adams and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] strip municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare coverage and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.

The city’s top fiscal watchdog cited “pending litigation” in announcing his decision today not to register the city’s Medicare Advantage contract with insurance industry giant Aetna.

“Pending litigation calls into question the legality of this procurement and constrains us from fulfilling our Charter mandated responsibility to confirm that procurement rules were followed, sufficient funds are available, and the City has the necessary authority to enter into the contract,” the Comptroller’s Office said in a statement released today. 

Municipal retirees last week filed an 84-page, 12-point class-action lawsuit against the City of New York and moved for a preliminary injunction to stop the entire Medicare Advantage plan from moving ahead.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank’s decision on that preliminary injunction is expected to come in the next few weeks.

Lander, however, also stated that as a matter of public policy he is seriously concerned about “the privatization of Medicare plans, overbilling by insurance companies and barriers to care under Medicare Advantage plans.”

The comptroller’s concerns about the existential threat Medicare Advantage plans pose to traditional Medicare also echo the fears former health insurance industry insider Wendell Potter expressed earlier this week during a webinar on the “Lies, Fraud, and Naked Profiteering in Medicare Privatization Schemes.”

“Medicare Advantage continues to be an enormous threat,” Potter said. “If the number of enrollees in Medicare Advantage continue to grow as it's expected to, I think by 2030 well over 60 percent of enrollees will be enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. So, that will mean the traditional program will be less and less resourced.”

Jeff Johnson, former head of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO and co-president of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action [PSARA], tells Work-Bites Medicare Advantage programs and ACO REACH plans allow corporate America to “fleece the Medicare system by taking excessive administrative costs and profits from what would otherwise be money available for expanded services for Medicare beneficiaries and for lowering Medigap premium costs.”

Additionally, Johnson says, “when you consider the mounting evidence of outright fraud committed by the private entities administering Medicare, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year, it is no wonder that the Medicare Trust Fund that workers pay into their entire work lives is in jeopardy.”

Johnson says it’s time to “level the playing field by ending excessive profit-ization and fraud in the privatized portions of Medicare, and to strengthen the benefits offered in traditional Medicare (dental, vision, hearing, long term care, etc), and to end the punitive Medigap policy costs.”

New York City Organization of Public Service Retires President Marianne Pizzitola says she hopes Mayor Adams will now, “do the right thing to allow for choice of healthcare plans.”

“If I was the mayor,” Pizzitola tells Work-Bites, “I would first say, ‘I need to call Marianne and have a meeting’ — everything we’ve been saying, the comptroller agrees with.”

Municipal retirees from a number of different advocacy groups have been attempting to get a meeting with the Mayor’s Office to discuss cost-saving alternatives to privatizing Medicare, but to no avail. 

When asked for a response to the comptroller’s decision not to register the Aetna Medicare Advantage contract, a City Hall spokesperson said, “"We are reviewing the letter from the comptroller's office, which we just received, and our next steps.”

“I am happy the Comptroller didn’t register this contract with Aetna,” Cross-Union  Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Sarah Shapiro tells Work-Bites. “We retirees have the same concerns he does about the privatization of our public Medicare. These Medicare Advantage plans are just subpar health insurance plans; we need to expand our public Medicare and get rid of these Medicare Advantage plans.”

Stu Eber, president of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations [COMRO], says Lander showed “good judgement” in protecting both retirees’ health benefits and taxpayers’ dollars by “withholding the registration of the Aetna contract.”

“We want to maintain our original premium free Medicare coverage,” Eber tells Work-Bites. “Our tax dollars should not be going to a company that is under multiple investigations for fraudulent practices.”

UFT retiree and CROC member Martha Bordman calls Medicare Advantage an “insurance racket,” and says it’s “heartening to hear the comptroller recognizes this, and is showing integrity by not rubber-stamping the Aetna MA contract.”

New York City retiree Kathleen Cahill says she feels as if a “500 pound weight” has been lifted off her shoulders now that Lander has refused to register the Aetna Medicare Advantage contract. 

“My anxiety and fear are reduced,” she tells Work-Bites. “Comptroller Lander saw the truth, and he was able and willing to uphold it.”

Dr. Len Rodberg, professor Emeritus of Urban Studies at Queens College and co-director at Community Studies of New York, Inc., says Lander’s refusal to register the Aetna contract demonstrates “the strength of the case against the city’s action.”

“The city violated multiple legal requirements in reversing decades of support for retirees’ access to Medicare,” Dr. Rodberg tells Work-Bites. “The fight continues!”

Harry Weiner spent 30 years working for the New York City Housing Authority. As a member of IBT Local 237, he views the MLC leadership’s push for privatization as a special betrayal.

“Unlike City Council members who have been intimidated by the mayor, speaker and union leadership — Comptroller Lander has shown courage,  fierce independence and empathy for myself and other retirees,” Weiner tells Work-Bites. “Hopefully, Judge Lyle Frank is taking note and will will rightfully issue a restraining order very soon. All eyes are now on ‘Mayor Swagger’ to see if he doubles down — or does the right thing by finding alternative humane options for health cost savings.”

New York City retiree and cancer survivor Roberta Gonzalez wonders how much taxpayer money the Adams administration has already wasted and will continue to waste if it decides to keep pushing privatization in court.

“Probably enough money with all the lawyers, advisors and others to keep retirees in their little 20 percent senior GHI plan for a while,” Gonzalez tells Work-Bites.

Her advice to the mayor following Lander’s decision not to register the City of New York’s Medicare Advantage contact with Aetna?

“Don’t devalue [city workers] past, present and future — don’t negate their contributions to this vast metropolis, and don’t renege on promises to those who sacrifice to keep the city going,” she says.

Statutorily, Mayor Adams has the ability to simply ignore Lander’s decision and “deem” the Aetna contract registered.

Meanwhile, the introduction of a City Council bill meant to protect traditional Medicare for municipal retirees from any privatization scheme, along with an accompanying rally that were both planned for today — have been postponed until June 22, due to the dangerously smoky air enveloping the city.