UFT Unity’s pride and joy, Michael Mulgrew, loves him some co-pays. Every time the city threatens a premium, he just asks, “Where can I add a co-pay?” You might as well have a premium, in some ways. Except the way Mulgrew does it is more a tax on the sick. ..... How can they pay back the 600 million a year, forever, they exchanged for the three year 2018 contract? They planned to dump the retirees into an Advantage plan, or make them pay protection money to keep real Medicare. But now they need to get their paws into the pockets of retirees some other way.....Arthur at Union Matters, The Mulgrew Tax
How much money have the law suits save you from the various Mulgrewcare taxes? I'm mailing another check today:
Donation ONLY address is:
NYC ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE RETIREESC/o JSH Accounting PO Box 143538Fayetteville, GA 30214
Monday, Aug. 5, 2024
I've been to so many doctors since March and had so many blood-tests, CT scans, endoscopies, etc and now facing 6 months of chemo twice a month, if I had to pay even $15 for every visit and test I'd be out a lot of money and will be starting Jan. 1 when co-pays will be back after the city and GHI rewrote the contract that had made co-pays illegal for retirees. That law suit has saved me and other retirees who need numerous doctor visits some serious money. That's why I'm sending the
Mulgrew's silence speaks volumes. He must be partying with his fellow Unity Caucus slugs who bow down to support any position he puts before them, even if he leads them off a cliff, which he actually may be doing.
You have to be observant at to the carefully parsed language UFT and AFT leaders use - they talk about Medicare and Medicare Advantage by purposely mixing them up. When they talk about Medicare they really mean MedAdv which has been a fundamental project of both parties but Republicans don't have a base to cater to so if they take over we will all be facing MedAdv. Dems can't just easily throw us under the bus, though Mulgrew and Randi tried mighty hard. The UFT Retiree vote tossed them a curveball as big as the Harris replacing Biden has thrown at Trump.
Here is Marianne's video report on the court decision
And her article in The CHIEF LEADER
The city and the MLC are selling false promises
BY MARIANNE PIZZITOLA
There is no “savings” to be found by forcing retirees into Medicare Advantage because no money was going back to the taxpayers, as affirmed by the Independent Budget Office. The Municipal Labor Committee’s Medicare privatization scheme literally sold off Medicare retiree health benefits to finance in-service workers and non-Medicare eligible health-care premiums.
Medicare-eligible retirees are senior citizens, the disabled, 9/11 responders and widows/widowers, your most vulnerable. In exchange for giving back to the city, the Medicare plan that pays only 20 percent of medical bills, the MLC was to receive the value earmarked for the Joint Health Stabilization Fund, which has been used like a slush fund by both the MLC and past mayors.
The real cost would be to the lives of those who experience harm or die from not having access to their doctors or treatment. We don’t need a maximum out-of-pocket cap in traditional Medicare — we had few expenses. Other “perks” highlighted by the city are a trade-off to access to care. More and more doctors and hospitals refuse to accept Medicare Advantage (MA). Retirees in continuing care residential communities will experience denials when prior authorization is needed for hospitalization, skilled nursing or rehab. This is not a savings.
Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, recently withdrew his support for MA, but only after his retirees and para caucuses lost their elections last month two to one. Mulgrew orchestrated this MA scheme to fund his contract and stabilization fund then blamed the city for “bad lawyering” after the ninth court loss for the city’s scheme and withdrew, leaving the other unions to wallow in the hole he dug with his colleague at District Council 37, Henry Garrido. The UFT attorney (who is also the MLC attorney) filed an amicus brief against retirees taking the side of the City. Did Mulgrew forget his lawyer appeared in court sharing notes with city officials? Clearly, there was collaboration.
All the unions within the MLC pay dues, which are used to fight against themselves and the retirees — through that MLC-funded amicus!
Mulgrew and Garrido need to take ownership of the mess they set into motion, led 100 unions down this hole, sold the false premise that MA mirrors traditional Medicare, and urged them to believe everything the retirees and our lawyers said was a lie. They convinced other leaders and elected officials they represented current retirees when under the law, they do not. Historically, the MLC protected retirees; this time they stole from them.
In fact, everything we have said has been true and we have proved it at every turn, in two courts, where 10 judges have agreed, and nine have twice unanimously affirmed lower court findings in favor of the retirees. But the MLC leaders, Garrido, Mulgrew and Chair Harry Nespoli, will have you believe the retirees caused this turmoil and control the narrative when our narrative is just the truth.
The retirees have exposed gaslighting by union leaders. Threats were made to the City Council members by these very union leaders! Now what? Mulgrew has the Moratorium Act to fall back on. That state law protects benefits of retired school district employees from diminishment unless benefits for employees are equally diminished. They are the only ones with that protection.
Garrido hinted the unions could be subject to an improper practice if they refused to adhere to the MLC agreement because the committee convinced them to roll it into their contracts. If they walk back the deal, they walk into an improper practice.
But what about the MLC Agreements containing no blow-up clause? Blow-up language states how the parties will proceed if the agreement cannot be accomplished. The 2018 MLC agreement only accounted for what they would do if they made too much money, but not if they didn’t make enough!
The courts declared this scheme illegal. This MLC provision should be voided from the contracts — they made a bad deal that’s been fraught by litigation for three years. Declare a mulligan. And for Pete’s sake, you are union! Your value does not diminish! Stop selling yourselves off for a raise! Tell the commissioner of LaborRelations, Renee Campion, and the former commissioner, Bob Linn, that the deal, found by the courts to be illegal, is off. Linn negotiated both the 2014 and 2018agreements. He’s been trying to undo the city statute that provides us our health care benefits since the Koch administration.
Unions must use the leverage of coalition bargaining to set the contract benchmark as ONE body. The MLC does not hold a bargaining certificate, but organizing the unions not to accept anything lower than the benchmark as the standard is the way it should be done. And union leaders, revise the MLC bylaws to get rid of the weighted vote. Every union large or small has the same value and should have the same vote. If the UFT and DC37 come up with another hair-brained scheme tomorrow, everyone will be in the same hole again.
Marianne Pizzitola, a retired emergency medical technician, is president of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and the FDNY EMS Retirees
“In God we Trust”
Dear Retirees, Happy Weekend!We are letting you know of a few updates in this week’s Wrap Up!
The Mayor did in fact file to appeal his 9th loss on Thursday night. The appeal asks the court for permission to appeal the case. The Court has a few months to decide if they will and then it will be months before it would be heard if it is accepted. We will update you as we get more information.
If you are not aware, every Friday morning, Marianne co-hosts a Labor Radio hour on What’s Going On, broadcast on WBAI 99.5 FM at 7 AM with Julianna Forlano. You can listen LIVE! here: or listen to the archive any time, Here is the June 28th broadcast, we believe this show will be picked up nationally very soon! If we have time for calls you can dial in 212-209-2877 Stay tuned!
On the Retiree Labor MA battles, we congratulate Delaware State Retirees who successfully passed a law that prevents them from being forced into Medicare Advantage. They also made history because one of their bills was vetoed by their Governor and the legislature overturned it, making it the first time since 1977 since that happened! Congratulations Delaware Retirees!
The Retiree Advocate Slate is getting into the groove and is already working on behalf of retired teachers! We are excited to watch! We also hear the Paras are settling into their new jobs and we are watching that too! Labor democracy and transparency lacks in NYC, and we hope to change that by empowering people to make it happen!
News out of the MLC – The UFT walked back its support of the Medicare Advantage, but it is purely symbolic. They made the statement largely due to the Unity caucus losing the Retiree election, but at this point the damage has been done. They cannot walk back what they put into motion, they will be subject to an improper practice as they rolled those MLC “savings agreements” into all their contracts. It’s a nothingburger and it was expressed in the MLC meeting, Mulgrew had to do what he had to do. Mulgrew initiated this mess, orchestrated it and dragged all the unions with him down this path with Henry Garrido of DC37 and Harry Nespoli of Sanitation.
The MLC also has a funding deficit because of their spending on lawyers among other issues. They drained their cash by paying Alan Klinger, lawyer, $882k in 2022 and $763k in 2023 to fight retirees – former members of their own unions. His previous annual revenue was about $200k average, and their house attorney Harry Greenberg has a $60k annual income. Stark differences. And it is our opinion the lawyers are conflicted, especially Klinger as he not only represents the MLC, but the UFT, CWA, Sanitation, and several other unions. He cannot independently advocate for the MLC (ALL UNIONS), when his clients are on the EBoard. This is where the weighted vote becomes a stronghold and to the detriment of the smaller unions. They tried to pass an MLC dues increase to cover the $700k debt they owe Segal consulting for the health plans. Thankfully that did not happen yet, as they have failed to address their spending and using union resources to advocate AGAINST other unions and their retirees. More to come…
In the meantime, we will now be in court on all three cases fighting in 4 separate oral arguments starting in the fall. Two of those cases will be in Albany. The lawyers need to prepare and we need to start a monthly fundraiser we will announce next week.
OUR CASES:
1. Campion – What is the meaning of 12-126? What is the benchmark the City has to pay up to? This is scheduled for the NYS Court of Appeals in Albany.
2. Bianculli – The CoPay Case- they implemented copays on our senior care to make it as painful as possible to stay in this plan and we would move to the medicare advantage. This is in the Supreme Court and the Appeals Court.
3. Bentkowski – the Nuclear option case – that they forced us into Aetna and eliminated ALL plans headed to the NYS Court of Appeals in Albany.
Thanks everyone. Please keep donating, get your friends to donate, and keep the faith! We will update you as more information develops!
Three recent videos are below! Enjoy!
CLICK to watch the Friday Night Update
Congratulations Delaware!
Retirees statement on the UFT announcement
Everyone I know is still paying co-pays! For me, it’s mostly specialists which is 30 bucks. I’m 63. I guess I have to call somebody, but it won’t be UFT.
ReplyDeleteMarianne is also a little naughty in confusing terminology, though I support her efforts. She says “In exchange for giving back to the city, the Medicare plan that pays only 20 percent of medical bills...” -- using the term “Medicare plan” is really confusing, though I’m not quite sure what she means in that whole sentence. If she’s talking about Senior Care, that’s a “supplement” to Medicare Part B (which picks up 80% of the costs), and calling it a “Medicare plan” is not helping anyone. Sr Care is a plan that the city negotiated with GHI/Emblem to pick up the 20% that Part B doesn’t pay for. Let me emphasize the word “negotiated,” because unlike similar supplemental plans in the open market (= Medigaps), the city “negotiated” $15 copays and a $50 deductible ON TOP of the Part B deductible. NO open-market Medigaps have copays, and NO open-market Medigaps have deductibles on top of Part B deductibles -- because copays and deductibles are not built into the federal design of these open-market Medigaps. Thankfully, the courts have now intervened on those copays, so for the moment they’re gone. (Sadly, Quest and some other providers still have the $15 copay built into their software: I had to refuse paying it at two offices recently.) That negotiated $50 deductible is NOT gone, it’s still there. Bottom line: I wish people would stop confusing this terminology. It’s hard enough to understand as it is.
ReplyDeleteThe co-pay issue referred to retirees who are 65 or over who are on medicare. Pre-65 retirees are still on the working healthcare plan and do have co-pays. We will start on Jan. 1 unless we figure out a court angle.
ReplyDeleteJust refuse to pay them. Look at your GHI card: it says “Copays 0” for PCP and specialist. It’s the software in their computers that keeps generating that thing. When I refuse, the practitioner just says “Okay, they’ll just bill you.” Which of course they won’t, because there is no copay. Says so on the OLR site also.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I was responding to the Anon. comment, which I don’t see now, but exactly what Norm says: I was referring to Sr Care copays, not the 63 year old copays.
ReplyDelete