Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Birthday Present for me -- NYC Municipal Retirees Claim Victory over MulgrewCare While Mulgew will declare victory for UFT -- Devil may be in details - Press Conf at 2PM - Don't count those chickens yst
Well this Unity Caucus attack on UFC over MulgrewCare didn't age well.
What a way to celebrate my 77th birthday and 12th year on Medicare. I still am not 100% sure I won't start paying an extra $400 a month (for me and my wife) starting April 1 to keep my seniorcare. Lots of legalese to wade through.
I'm going to spend the money anyway on Beef Wellington tonight at One if By Land, Two if By Sea.
This is not a slam dunk win for us. The judge offers the city the choice to offer no options and toss everyone into a medicare advantage plan. So if they can't get $200 out of us now they can only save money but eliminating the opt out option. Adams may still do it and Mulgrew won't say boo.
So we may just yet be forced into a MEDAV without the choice other than to leave the senior care altogether and buy an AARP type plan for $200.
A real issue for me is the UFT/Mulgrew backing of privatized healthcare profit making slimebags in the healthcare industry while undermining public option of Medicare. But I'm not shocked at Unity backing naked unfettered capitalism.
That the unions are siding with profit making privatized healthcare over the public options.
They say they are saving money but are opposed to universal care which will be the money saver.
They
are contributing to the long-time decline of medicare which has to pay a
higher premium to MedAdv to cover higher admin costs.
Upcoding is harmful to our health and that is how they squeeze more money out of Medicare.
Expect Mulgew and Unity hacks to declare this a victory for them after attacking the people filing the suit for months. "We intended this all the time."
While happy at the possibilities of victory, it may not be a total one as city and union may still have options. I'm also looking at spin from our side too.
From the decision:
...states unequivocally that “[t]he City will pay the entire cost of health insurance coverage for city
employees, city retirees and their dependents, not to exceed one hundred percent of the full cost
of H.I.P.-H.M.O. on a category basis.
2
” Respondent and nominal respondent aver that the
definition of “health insurance coverage”, as defined in Admin. Code§ 12-126 (a), stating “a
program” as opposed to “any program” means that the City of New York need only pay for the
entire cost of one program. This Court respectfully disagrees. NYC Admin. Code § 12-126
(b)(1) is simply unequivocal and does not use terms like “provide” or “offer”; rather it uses the
term will pay and it provides parameters of such payment. The definition in NYC Admin. Code
§ 12-126 (a)(iv) simply provides what constitutes a program or plan that the City of New York is
required by law to pay for, by defining the contents of such a plan. This Court holds that this is
the only reasonable way of interpreting this section.
Of course, none of this is to say that the respondent must give retirees an option of plans,
nor that if the plan goes above the threshold discussed in NYC Admin. Code § 12-126 (b)(1) that
the respondent could not pass along the cost above the threshold to the retiree; only that if there
is to be an option of more than one plan, that the respondent may not pass any cost of the prior
plan to the retirees, as it is the Court’s understanding that the threshold is not crossed by the cost
of the retirees’ current health insurance plan. This is buoyed by the fact that the current plan has
been paid for by the respondent in full to this point.
A wise sage says:
As
I read this, the city if it gives a choice, must pay for it fully
unless it costs more than HIP. If they take the choice away and truly
throw all retirees into MAP, that would be a bad political move for
unions.
Here is Daily News -- called us David -- funny but talks about city but not getting screwed by union. After all, if unions didn't agree there would be no deal.
Judge rules Adams admin cannot financially penalize NYC retirees who reject controversial Medicare plan
A Manhattan judge ruled Thursday that Mayor Adams’ administration
cannot slap a financial penalty on retired municipal workers who opt out
of the city’s controversial new Medicare plan, marking a significant
win for a group of retirees who fought the health insurance switch in
court for months.
The effort by the administration to levy a $191 monthly fee on retirees
who want to keep their current coverage instead of enrolling in the new
Medicare Advantage Plan runs counter to longstanding local
administrative law, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank wrote in a
decision.
The law in question, Frank continued, requires the city to “pay the
entire cost of health insurance coverage for city employees, city
retirees and their dependents.” Any attempt to impose a premium or other
cost for coverage is thereby illegal, he added.
“This Court holds that this is the only reasonable way of interpreting this section,” the judge wrote.
Frank’s decision caps a court battle between the city and a group of
retired city workers that began last year under former Mayor Bill de
Blasio’s administration.
In announcing the plan last fall, de Blasio’s administration presented
Medicare Advantage as a boon to the city and save taxpayers hundreds of
millions of dollars every year because it is subsidized by the federal
government at a higher rate. At the same time, the administration
maintained the new plan would provide the city’s roughly 250,000
Medicare-aged retirees with health coverage that’s comparable to what
they’re currently receiving.
But the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees sued over the move,
charging that the new plan would result in inferior coverage, including
by imposing complex new preauthorization procedures for specific
medical procedures.
After vowing on the campaign trail to make sure the new Medicare plan
wouldn’t be a “bait and switch” for retired workers, Adams announced last month that he would move ahead with implementing it as envisioned by de Blasio, angering retirees who said he was going back on his promise by keeping the $191 penalty intact.
Retired New York City municipal workers are pictured marching near
Brooklyn Borough Hall to call on Mayor-elect Adams to preserve their
Medicare coverage last December. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
A spokesman for Adams did not immediately return a request for comment after Frank’s ruling.
Steve Cohen, a lawyer for the NYC Organization of Public Service
Retirees, said the judge’s order validates the concerns of his clients
and amounts to an “incredible victory” for them.
“The city got greedy, and held a sword over the head of retirees and
said, ‘If you don’t accept your new plan, we’re not going to pay for
your health care,’” Cohen said. “The judge saw right through that and
said, ‘No way, you can’t do that.’”
According to data reviewed by the Daily News, more than 45,000 retired
city workers had opted out of Medicare Advantage Plan as of mid-February
despite the now-rescinded financial penalty they would face.
The Adams administration can still offer the Advantage plan to retirees
on a voluntary basis, starting April 1, under Frank’s ruling. It was
not immediately clear Thursday afternoon how the administration will
proceed.
Here is the presser announcement going on now.
NYC Municipal Retirees to Celebrate Court Victory on Healthcare Coverage
Scores of retirees will gather near City Hall at 2:00 p.m. today
(3-3-22) to celebrate a court ruling that will let them keep their
health benefits without paying punishing premiums.
In
a David-over-Goliath victory, a Manhattan judge ruled this morning
against the city's plan to move a quarter-million retirees off their
current coverage, traditional Medicare and a supplement, into a
controversial new Medicare Advantage plan.
A
retiree group had sued the city, saying the proposed plan would limit
their access to doctors and services. Today Justice Lyle E. Frank of
state supreme court in Manhattan prohibited the city from imposing stiff
new premiums, $191 per covered person, on retirees wishing to opt out
of the premium-free new plan. Roughly 47,000 retirees and dependents
have already opted out despite the proposed penalty, which will no
longer be imposed.
The city can still
implement its new Medicare Advantage plan on April 1, with many retirees
expected to be enrolled in it -- not necessarily with their active
consent -- but the ruling gives them three months to switch out of it.
Lawyers for the retiree groups will address the rally this afternoon to give more details.
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