By Bob Hennelly

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [D-21st District] says the City Council will not take up legislation proposed in a letter from the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] to prevent municipal retirees from being forced into a controversial Aetna Medicare Advantage plan that was approved earlier this month by the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] — the umbrella organization representing public sector unions in the city.

“We’ve read the letter, but we are leaving this conversation to the parties to collectively bargain at this time,” Adams said in response to a question from Work-Bites. “We are not considering anything at the moment, but we are still listening to the various parties involved. When we held the oversight hearing as you all know on the idea of changing the Administrative Code there was significant opposition to the idea.”

NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola, however, told Work-Bites the speaker is “sadly mistaken” about how collective bargaining works.

“Civil service retirees are not represented by their former unions in the collective bargaining process,” Pizzitola told Work-Bites during a phone interview. “The Taylor Law is very clear that public unions can only negotiate on behalf of active members, which leaves 250,000 retirees out of the process entirely. Historically, it has been the City Council which has protected retirees and acted as the guarantors of the city solemn commitment it’s made for generations to its workforce.” 

In her March 15 letter to Adams and the City Council, Pizzitola also said, “If you are really serious about wanting to protect retirees, now is the time to do it. We ask that you support our bill so that no future Council member or future retiree has to endure this fight again.” 

Pizzitola’s letter included a draft of the proposed bill which would codify the city’s 250,000 retirees’ access to traditional Medicare as well as at least “one Medigap plan with benefits equivalent to or better than those available to City retirees and their dependents as of December 31, 2021.” The bill continues, “Nothing herein shall be construed to impair the ability of any employee organization to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment for their employee members.”

A Little Bit of History

In her correspondence, Pizzitola invoked the name of Council Member Mary Pinkett — the first Black woman elected to the Council. Pinkett served from 1974 to 2001 and fought for the Administration Code that protected municipal retirees’ healthcare, resisting “the efforts of three prior Mayors to take away health benefits from retirees.”

Earlier this year, Speaker Adams and the City Council opted to not approve a change to that same Administrative Code that was being sought by the Adams administration and the MLC. On Jan. 9, several hundred city retirees filled the City Hall Chambers and overflow rooms to protest the shift to Medicare Advantage.

On the eve of the introduction of proposed change to the Administrative Code, Adams and Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the Civil Service and Labor Committee issued a statement asserting that no matter how they acted on the legislation, Mayor Adams and the MLC will be “moving forward to implement Medicare Advantage.”

During a City Hall interview this week, Council Member Charles Barron (D-42nd District] said the Council should not abandon the fight to protect municipal retirees’ existing health care coverage — and that Speaker Adams is “going along with the mayor.” 

“Collective bargaining is not the answer because there’s not a bargain for the retirees — they are not bargaining for themselves — they are going up against some of their own unions that are supposed to be protecting them,” the Brooklyn representative said. “I think this is the Speaker going along with the Mayor. The Speaker and the Mayor — they want Medicare Advantage instead of Senior Care and they want to privatize to Aetna, one of the most immoral companies who was part of the slave trade and is currently under investigation.”

The Wrong Prescription

At a marathon City Council hearing on Jan. 9, hundreds of New York City retired civil servants filled the Council Chambers and overflow rooms to testify against the shift to Aetna Medicare Advantage that’s being promoted by Mayor Adams and the MLC. Critics of Medicare Advantage point to in-depth investigative reports in the New York Times and Kaiser Health News that documented the largest Medicare Advantage insurers were ripping off the federal government while restricting access to critical medical care through pre-authorizations.

In October, the New York Times published the headline “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable: How Health Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions-By next year half of Medicare beneficiaries will have a private Medicare Advantage plan. Most large insurers have been accused of fraud.”

The Times continued, “Eight of the 10 biggest Medicare Advantage insurers — representing more than two-thirds of the market — have submitted inflated bills, according to the federal audits. And four of the five largest players — UnitedHealth, Humana, Elevance and Kaiser — have faced federal lawsuits alleging that efforts to over diagnose their customers crossed the line into fraud.”

“The fifth company, CVS Health, which owns Aetna, told investors its practices were being investigated by the Department of Justice,” the Times reported.

What Other City Council Members Have to Say

Council Member Ari Kagan [R-47th District], who left the Democrats’ caucus to join the Republicans, wants the Council to take legislative action to support municipal retirees fighting to hold on to traditional Medicare benefits. 

“Where there is a will there's a way,” Kagan said this week. “The City Council should play a role to protect our fantastic municipal retirees. It is a very important issue. It’s not just 250,000 but also their families, this is the people’s house, of course we have to do something.”

Council Member Robert Holden [D-30th District] said that if the City Council can do something, it should.

“I am in the same boat,” he said. “I have Senior Care — I retired from CUNY. I don’t use the City Council’s healthcare plan because I was happy with mine. I don’t want to be forced into Medicare Advantage and neither do my constituents and the retirees. So, I think the Council should do everything and anything they can to make sure the retirees have a choice and not thrown into a one size fits all. They’ve always had a choice.”

Council Member Amanda Farias [D-18th District] said, “There is still a general concern about what our retirees are going to be experiencing as contracts continue to be negotiated. I am hoping we can see some sort of culmination of this that benefits retirees. We are still communicating with the retirees.” 

During a City Hall interview, Council Member and former Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer [D-6th District] said she felt the city retirees’ best hope for protecting their existing healthcare coverage was in the New York State Courts where they have already prevailed twice.

“What I am hoping is that Steve Cohen and his clients — the retirees — will go to court and that they will be successful,” Brewer said. “Many people that call me that are concerned are going out and finding some other kind of insurance — but its insurance you pay $200 a month for, and whatever deductibles or copays you have to add on to that. That’s what’s happening in reality, and I am very concerned because there are a whole bunch of retirees who can’t do that — particularly the DC 37 retirees. They can’t afford $200 a month.”

The Heads of the MLC Embrace Medicare Advantage

On March 9, the 100-plus city public unions that make up the MLC voted to sign off on the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan, which was heavily promoted by DC 37 and the United Federation of Teachers, and who together represent close to two-thirds of the city's 300,000 plus workforce.

Twenty-six unions voted “No” including the Professional Staff Congress, which represents 40,000 CUNY faculty, the UFOA, which represents the FDNY Fire Officers, and the UFA, which represents FDNY firefighters. Ten unions abstained.

In a statement after the vote, UFT President and MLC Vice-Chair Michael Mulgrew said the Aetna plan was “much improved…with new guarantees about prior authorization of services and enhanced other benefits.”

“The plan is designed to provide high-quality, premium free healthcare,” Mulgrew added. “We will continue to monitor its implementation to ensure that Aetna meets its obligations to our retirees.”

The reality with the Aetna plan, Pizzitola says, “is that we are still dealing with a network. And the possibility exists that your current doctor will not be in that network. It’s still putting the burden on the retiree potentially upending their existing coverage including assisted living and end of life care.”

The MLC’s controversial embrace of Medicare Advantage is the outgrowth of deals it cut with the Bill de Blasio administration to find billions of dollars in healthcare cost savings as unions settled well over 100 labor contracts that Mayor Bloomberg had left unsettled for years.

Last month, Harry Nespoli, chair of the MLC and president of Teamsters Local 831, which represents the Department of Sanitation rank and file workforce, told Work-Bites the umbrella labor group had “eliminated a lot of the pre-authorizations” and was going continue to press Aetna on that front.

In April, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General [OIG] put out a report detailing how Medicare Advantage plans use pre-authorizations to delay or deny “access to services.”