By Joe Maniscalco

Is there a possibility — now that Comptroller Brad Lander has declined to register New York City’s Medicare Advantage contract with Aetna — Mayor Eric Adams will reconsider his plan to strip municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare coverage? 

Opponents of privatization — including union leaders who bucked the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] and voted against the contract in March — sure hope there is.

“The most egregious part of this plan is the devastating impact it will have on our elderly retirees who have very small pensions,” Correction Captains’ Association [CCA] President Pat Ferraiuolo tells Work-Bites. “The history of MA Plans is horrible — reduced access to quality providers is only the tip of the iceberg.”

The head of the CCA says, “We all must be aware that Aetna is a for-profit corporation and their Board of Directors have investors who expect a return on their investment. Where will Aetna’s concern be — to satisfy the shareholder — or the retired plan member? I think we all know what that answer is.”

Lander talked about Medicare Advantage’s many ills — 9 in 10 private insurance companies including Aetna hit with federal charges — as well as the existential threat increasing privatization poses to traditional Medicare, in a broadcast conversation with Work-Bites’ Bob Hennelly earlier this morning.

“You gotta be worried both about what would happen if you’re a retiree who needs critically necessary care,” Lander said, “but also what’s gonna happen if this trend keeps going and we lose Medicare all together.” 

Despite the mayor being able to override the comptroller and simply “deem” the Aetna contract registered — Ferraiuolo, nonetheless, calls Lander’s decision, “very significant.”

“As Comptroller Lander said…he is 'seriously concerned about the privatization of Medicare plans.’ This is exactly why the Correction Captains’ Association voted against the proposal in the MLC, and against changing the NYC Administrative Code to clear the way for the City to do whatever they would want with the health care insurance of all civil servants in NYC,” Ferraiuolo says. 

NYC Laborers’ Local 924 President Kyle Simmons, however, isn’t entirely convinced Lander’s decision is that significant, and would like to see more action out of elected officials. 

“I’m not sure if Comptroller Lander’s decision not to register Aetna Medicare Contract is more of a symbolic measure — or does it really [have] teeth moving forward because of the Mayor’s overriding powers,” Simmons tells Work-Bites.

The union leader says he hopes the comptroller uses his fiscal powers, along with other elected officials “to ask the real hard questions about this very shaky contact.”

“When was the last time in any one’s memory of a contract of this magnitude  that the city had entered into — that it didn’t flop?” Simmons says. 

The legality of the city’s Medicare Advantage contract with Aetna is presently being determined inside Manhattan Supreme Court. A ruling by Justice Lyle Frank is expected in the next couple of weeks.

But if the legality of the contract is ultimately upheld, Lander says although he “wouldn’t be happy about it,” he would still be legally required to register it — “unless there was some other law.” 

Proposed legislation designed to protect traditional Medicare coverage for municipal retirees was supposed to be introduced in the New York City Council last week, but had to be postponed due to dangerous weather conditions. That long-awaited legislation is now expected to be introduced next week. 

“If this [Medicare Advantage] plan goes into effect, a city retiree on a fixed income has little if any choice but to go into it,” Ferraiuolo says. “If they don’t, and choose to stay in traditional Medicare, not only will they have to pay for their own supplemental coverage, they will also lose out on the City’s obligation to refund their Medicare Part B reimbursement. It’s a no-win situation for an elderly retiree on a fixed income.”

Lander says he hopes “we get a plan C that preserves Medicare for New York City retirees and makes it possible for people to have the confidence that the healthcare they expect will be there for them.”

Work-Bites reached out the Mayor’s Office for comment on this story and is waiting to hear back.

“I hope that the Court will again side with the retirees and Mayor Adams realizes the right thing to do is abandon the implementation of any Medicare Advantage Care plan for retirees,” Ferraiuolo says. “There is absolutely no ‘advantage’ to a MA plan except for companies like Aetna.”

Simmons, meanwhile, questions the MLC’s role in the whole push for privatization — and the “validity of it being able to negotiate multiple billions of dollars of contracts without the ratification process by the membership of public sector workers.”

UFT retiree and Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Gloria Brandman tells Work-Bites, Lander has “obviously done due diligence, researched the realities connected with [Aetna], and has explained in full detail why this contract cannot be approved.”

“The Comptroller has also listened to the thousands of phone calls as well as read the multitude of  emails and letters sent to him by retirees explaining how  the Medicare Advantage plan would result in a diminishment in municipal retirees healthcare,” she says.