NYC Retirees Like the Support They’re Getting From Mayoral Hopefuls
The Magnificent Seven? Candidates vying to unseat New York City Mayor Eric Adams this fall appear on stage at the CUNY Graduate Center on Thursday night. Photo/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City municipal retirees looking for a trusted ally in City Hall as they continue fighting the Medicare Advantage push exited this past week’s mayoral forum at the CUNY Graduate Center generally feeling enthusiastic about the mixed field of candidates vying for their votes.
“I was very impressed that we had that number of people—any one of whom, if they could enact their vision, would help,” retired IT consultant Norman Dee told Work-Bites on Thursday night. “I was very moved by that and very impressed with all of them, really. Although Curtis [Sliwa] makes me a little uneasy. The red hat, you know?”
The mayoral candidates forum sponsored by the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees attracted four Democratic Party challengers getting ready to face off in the June 24 primary where voters will select their picks using ranked-choice voting.
Those candidates included New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, and former New York State Assembly Member Michael Blake.
Independents included attorney Jim Walden and self-avowed “skunk in the room” Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund guy who unsurprisingly thinks profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plans are awesome.
Guardian Angels founder and radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa—in that signature red beret—represented the Republican Party line.
However, Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, and New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie were all conspicuously missing in action.
The current mayor infamously denounced the scheme to strip New York City municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare coverage and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan as a “bait and switch” when he was campaigning for the mayoral gig in 2021.
Three of the most powerful union leaders in the city—District Council 37 Executive Henry Garrido, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, and Municipal Labor Committee Chair Harry Nespoli—all supported the initial push and still insist the privatized plan enhances existing benefits, although Mulgrew officially “withdrew” UFT support last year after Medicare Advantage foes seized control of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter.
Mayor Eric Adams’ ongoing push to privatize retiree healthcare continues despite 11 court victories—including a ruling by the highest court in the state—upholding retirees’ right to the healthcare plan they were promised when they entered civil service.
“My wife is a [municipal] retiree,” Dee continued. “We decided 45 years ago that she would do her library work and I would go into the private world with the understanding that while I would not have pension, we would be able to retire decently because we had her guaranteed healthcare. All of that is in question now.”
Retired Brooklyn College academic William Gargan said all of the candidates who vowed to back retirees on Thursday night would “support us much better than [Mayor Eric] Adams is doing.”
“When you go back to the beginning of all this and he had the nerve to say that it’s a ‘bait and switch’—that’s fine during the campaign. Then he comes along and gets elected mayor and all of a sudden he says, ‘Oh, no! We have to save $600 million—which is absurd.”
That apocryphal $600 million figure, of course, is the amount of money the Adams administration says the City of New York will save annually after throwing municipal retirees under the bus and subjecting them to the delays, denials, and shrinking pools of coverage that are the hallmarks of privatized Medicare Advantage health insurance plans.
“I think it’s just a symptom of what’s happening in society all around,” Dee added. “Promises and the basis of what our understanding about what our democracy is, is disappearing.”
Elvie Moore, a retired civilian employee with the NYPD, said he was impressed with Assembly Member Jessica Ramos—“the only woman on the stage”—during Thursday night’s mayoral candidates forum. He also liked Blake and Stringer as well.
“I like her record, I like her answers,” Moore told Work-Bites. “And then I like Blake’s approach. At the very end Stringer said some things that I’m gonna have to think about, too. His experience, his knowledge. Mostly his experience, and I liked him as a comptroller.”
New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services retiree Robert Silberscein also expressed support for Ramos, but also some reservations.
“I think Jessica Ramos is a very strong personality in what she is able to do for labor,” he said. “I was a little concerned that maybe her strong labor connections might influence her supporting us since labor unions are sort of going against retirees. But I think in the end our issue is strong enough for her to come through on that.”
Silberscein attributed the supportive messages municipal retirees heard from so many candidates on Thursday night to their highly successful organizing and impressive court victories over the last four years.
“I think they’re paying attention to us and the ones that ignored us tonight for some reason still want to avoid us,” he told Work-Bites. “We took on City Hall. No one thought that we were gonna come through. Of course, the courts coming down on our side unanimously—it gives us a lot of potential [to win]. But where are all the other politicians right now? If it was just based on the merits they should have been coming to our side. There are other things going on…some petty politics.”
Garrido and company—as previously reported here—have most of the New York City Council running scared and too afraid of losing labor support to sign onto Intro. 1096—legislation protecting retiree healthcare from Medicare Advantage.
And while the support candidates showed for New York City municipal retirees during Thursday night’s forum was welcomed, Mayor Adams’ flip-flop on Medicare Advantage, along with a long and extensive history of craven politicians committing similar acts of betrayal, also could not be ignored.
“That has a lot to do with politicians and having watched the political arena for sixty-something years,” Moore added.
Silberscein agreed political betrayal is “always a concern” for voters, but he also qualified that assessment saying, “There have been politicians who have disappointed me after they got in, and there were others that surprised me. I think the best thing would be to have a candidate running on the Democrat, Republican and Independent line all supporting us, and then we’d choose on different issues.”
The reality is any New York City mayor choosing to stand with retirees to protect their Traditional Medicare coverage will not only have to stand up to Garrido and Company—but a nationwide drive to privatize Medicare that predates both Donald Trump and the Project 2025 agenda.
That’s the real challenge facing all of the candidates appearing at this past week’s mayoral forum, one that far outstrips the ultimate career ambitions any of them might have. Will retirees who gave all to this city be disappointed after the votes for mayor are counted this fall, or will they be pleasantly surprised? Sadly, for all those dependent on unfettered, quality healthcare to survive the stakes could not be any higher.