Listen: NYC Comptroller Talks Eric Adams, Medicare Advantage…Plus More
"Blue Collar Mayor Breaks Blue Collar Contracts": New York City municipal retirees fighting Mayor Eric Adams' Medicare Advantage push march on Aetna's Manhattan offices this week. Photo/Joe Maniscalco
By Bob Hennelly
Over the weekend, indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams continued to express his intention to remain in office as he fights multiple corruption charges that could get him 45 years in prison. In this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we speak with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander about his take on this unprecedented crisis in city governance.
We also talk to Dr. Betty Kolod, chair of the Board of the NY-Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, about why Medicare Advantage is neither Medicare nor an advantage—and on how New York City's Health+Hospital hurts its patients by cutting primary care visits from 40 to 20 minutes. We also discuss the degradation of New York City EMS response times that are now averaging over ten minute for the most threatening medical calls. Only one in five heart attack victims in New York City survives— a ten year low.
In the last part of the show, we go to North Carolina where Hurricane Helene’s devastation has cut off power and road access. Across the southeast, nearly 100 people have been killed in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia. We get a firsthand report from Durham, North Carolina courtesy of Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove, co-author with Rev. William Barber of the seminal book “White Poverty, How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct Democracy.”
Wilson-Hartgrove describes the challenges for the poor in the mountains of North Carolina who live closest to the rivers and streams that can rapidly swell to life threatening depths.
Listen to the entire show below: