Listen: ‘Let The Mayor Do His Own Dirty Work’ City Council Urged To Stand Strong Against Medicare Advantage Switcheroo

NYC municipal workers opposed to the campaign to push retirees into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage health insurance plan are urging NYC Council members to stand with them. Above: Protesters march against Medicare Advantage on Dec. 21. Photo by Joe Maniscalco

By Bob Hennelly with Joe Maniscalco

“I guess the MLC and the mayor decided they wanted retirees to ring in the New Year with a ‘Screw you — we’re gonna do this when you’re not looking!”

That’s how Marianne Pizzitola, head of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees & FDNY EMS Retirees, reacted to breaking news NYC Council Member Carmen De La Rosa is introducing a bill this week changing the city’s Administrative Code and pushing municipal retirees into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.

“My fear is [New York City Council members] are succumbing to the fear tactics of the UFT, DC 37 and the mayor by telling them — you do this or we’ll eliminate all plans,” Pizzitola tells the Stuck Nation Radio Labor Hour. “What they don’t understand is — if they amend the code, they’ve essentially done the same thing.”

Mayor Eric Adams should do his own dirty work, Pizzitola says.

“Let him do this dirty deed all on his own. Don’t touch it because if he does it we are still able to litigate and we will win because we won in court twice,” she says. “You as the City Council, if you change the Administrative Code, you’ve basically harmed retirees and you’ve stripped our legal recourse away from us.”

But while the Adams administration and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee continue to cry poverty and push privatizing retiree healthcare — economist and lawyer James S. Henry reminds Stuck Nation Radio that New York continues to rebate Wall Street traders billions of dollars each year on a .1 percent stock transfer tax.

“It’s been total of about $375 billion that NYS taxpayers have been giving back to investors,” Henry says. “The reason it’s been rebated is simple — there’s a tiny group of Wall Streeters who do high-frequency trading and they are huge contributors to the Democratic Party.”

Listen to the entire segment below: