Healthcare Updates: Retiree Advocate Sunday Night Zoom, An instructive video, Does UFT/Unity Team Up with Private Insurer Lobby And Dem Party Central to Kill Medicare for All Proposals?

Last night RA Zoom. 

We expected maybe 50 - we had over 120 and had to buy more space. It was recorded and we will share the link when it is out.

 My recent posts:

A Cynical Mulgrew Abandons MulgrewCare - If he can't gouge retirees out of 2K a year he's not interested - Plus Satire alert 

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

 

Video: Here is a sweet and simple explanation of how we got to MAP from the legal team. Well worth a half hour of your time.

https://youtu.be/JITVzU3xS34
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In other news: Exploring UFT/Unity Caucus links to Big  Pharm and Healthcare giants trying to kill public options for their own profit

If it looks like a duck, etc. The outcome of all Mulgrew policy is to kill Medicare and support the industry in partnerships. 

 

Think of MulgrewDoubleSpeak - He not only supported the MedAdv, but bragged about designing it. Then after the judge ruled he said he was no longer supporting it because if the opt-outers don't have to pay it is no longer worth it. Thus he reveled the intentions all along --- to make us pay for the savings along with the future denials of service for those who didn't opt out.

You might wonder why the UFT/Unity/Mulgrew team is so much against medicare for all and pro-privatized healthcare. 

 

Evil Anthem - Mulgrew Partner

• NYC selects Anthem for retirees’ coverage — after feds sue over alleged Medicare fraud - NY Post

Links between the UFT and  privatizing scuzballs are being explored. As we know the Unity/UFT leaderhsip is an outpost of the center right corporate Democrats so search there.  Here's one potential connectionThe Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF) from a few years ago. Remember, Mulgrew raided the stabilization fund in 2014 and made the deal to screw us on healthcare in 2018 to replace that fund.

Top Democratic Consultants Have Worked for Anti-Medicare for All Campaign

“The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF), a nonprofit created  to oppose plans to create a comprehensive, universal health care system, paid almost $760,000 to Bully Pulpit Interactive, a communications and digital marketing firm that has worked with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).”

 

Their reasoning: “The government would be expected to set premiums for the public option approximately 25 percent below market value for comparable private insurance plans.”  

 

Remember - Mulgrew says he wants to save us money - by opposing Medicare for all. 

Do you know who the UFT uses for its digital media?

• Bully Pulpit Interactive

Our old ICEUFT pal wrote this blog post:

 

https://underassault.blogspot.com/2020/11/dogs-sheep-wolves.html?m=1

Dogs, Sheep, Wolves

 

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/big-pharma-insurers-hospitals-team-up-to-kill-medicare-for-all/

Big Pharma, insurers, hospitals team up to kill Medicare for All

Biggest donor to this dark money outfit … Blue Cross who runs Mulgrew fave Anthem.

=======

Can the city force us into medicare Adv? Senior Care would have to reach an extremely high dollar threshold for that to happen.

Some people are reading the judge as giving the OK for the city to offer no options and force us into MedAdv.

Here is an explanation of what the judge said.

Yes, we won the case, but of course the City can appeal. 

Don’t be confused by the terms “threshold” or “statutory cap”.  They are effectively irrelevant because the statutory cap which the City is not obligated to exceed paying is $776 per person per month. Senior Care is $191 per month per person so we are nowhere near the cap or threshold. For now we are in the cat bird seat.

 I feel catbird seat may be the optimistic view. What I do know is that I was expecting to start paying almost $400 starting April 1 and now I don't. And I blew that money at my birthday dinner last Thursday. Parteeeeee every month.

This thing is designed to squeeze folx out of senior care - By design - UFT Members react as NYC Unions Confirm Decision To Shift Retirees Onto Privatized Health Insurance

Imagine what Mulgrew would do it we are switched from the current 5% managed charters to 100% in NYC -- the UFT would be wiped out. This is straight out of the disgraced neo-liberal playbook of reducing government services. Also imagine if they tried to do the same to social security.

From a FB thread of working UFT members whose health plans will be next on the chopping block:

We were going to raise all the copays anyway… bullshit

“10% we will work with you to arrange payment “

It will cost you to stay with existing plan… so no it’s not as sold … "you can keep your coverage no problem"

Is there evidence that the MLC and City were going to raise copayments anyway

That’s Bs

Need to be called out loud and clear

But what are they being raised to?

Many procedures or services from 0

This thing is designed to squeeze folx out of senior care

By design

A key is the duplicity of the unions and their support of the health care industry - as is the support of the Dem and Rep Parties, So even if they lower medicare to 60 - we know that these people will be lured by the massive marketing -- money in essence out of our pockets -- of the industry. 

As I've been saying -- they are making the details look good on paper. But the key is that we are going from having 20% of our care managed and controlled privately to 100%. Morally and philosophically and any other way you want to put it -- even if I get the exact same service - I am opposed. Just like I oppose any privately managed charter school controls of the school system. Imagine what Mulgrew would do it we are switched from the current 5% managed charters to 100% in NYC -- the UFT would be wiped out.

It goes into effect Jan. 1 --- UFT elections start in March --  retirees need to make them pay for this act by voting for the opposition -- as long as there is one clear opponent, not multiple slates. 

The major thing I see is a truly mass rally and march not of hundreds but of thousands in protest. This will not happen without mass organizing and some time to do it. Sometimes impatience can be an enemy. As someone wise once said -- Build it and they will come. Jan. 1 is when the abomination goes into effect.  October  -- think of the first UFT Retired teacher meeting and of course they are afraid to have it in person -- I don't know the date but a Tuesday in October -- but we can be outside 52 Broadway at 1 PM to shout our disapproval.

We also need to organize moves to enlist medicare for all friendly politicians, I think people are beginning to work on that.

And getting this issue in front of left-leaning podcasters.

NYC Unions Confirm Decision To Shift Retirees Onto Privatized Health Insurance

https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-unions-vote-could-force-government-retirees-privatized-health-insurance

Linda Lyon’s film will go live SUNDAY JAN 21 @noon EST/10 AM MST

Are you fired up and ready to spread the word? Michael Elliott  and Kemala Karmen have been producing a series of short films for NPE. I was at part of the shoot in April and it was so professionally done. That a high level film maker and editor like Michael is willing to do this shows his commitment to defending public education.

The goal is to make them go viral and there is a social media strategy that can make this happen. See the guide below and also the quick things you can do if you can't handle the details of the guide.

https://vimeo.com/223903294

Hi friends,

Creating ATRs a Key Part of Privatization Plan

What follows is similar to the same plan being put into place in urban areas nation wide, and indeed, around the world as part of the neo-liberal agenda.

The corporate forces looking to control public education have an executable plan only of the union cooperated. And the UFT sure did. And does.

We need to connect all the dots in the DOE ATR plan as it ties into the ultimate goal of privatizing the public school system and removing unionized teachers as a force. (Note that other than the US, teachers often are leading national struggles in many countries - see Mexico, Honduras, Puerto Rico.)

Remember the goal: to have a school system with as few union teachers as possible. Thus, closing numbers of schools, especially the large high schools, which have seen an influx of charter schools full of non unionized teachers (anyone have a big rat to put in front of them?) Or the UFT for being part of the process?

The other part of the equation is to have a massive influx of new, low salaried teachers and push out the high salaried ones.

How does the ATR situation tie in? They needed to kill the seniority system as a first step in their plan. Imagine if they closed all these schools under the old system? All the teachers would start bumping people all over the place, just as we all went through in our careers.

So, they took a temporary hit in the 2005 contract in the sense of agreeing to keep paying all these people as a temporary stage. Call it an investment in the long term goal of a non-unionized, privatized system.

Now we are going to phase 2, which we call the buy-out phase, where they will pay up front to get people to leave or pull a Michelle Rhee and offer big bumps in salary to teachers who agree to give up their tenure.

For those who don't jump, there are the public attacks on the ATRs by the New Teacher Project's Tim Daley, Klein and the press who will demand a Chicago system where ATRs get to sub for one year and if they have no job they are released.

But since there will be a continuous stream of ATRs as they close more schools, they need to modify the contract. They will do that in the usual way – bribe the UFT with salary, another short term investment since they know they will reduce the ranks of the union by huge chunks in the long run. Then we will see massive school closings for all kinds of reasons, like 12 kids sneezed. (All they have to do is make the tests harder for a year or two and fail more schools.)

Look for some little nudge in this direction in the new contract. It will be subtle to get people to vote for it but it will give BloomKlein a wedge to move their plans forward.

Pimping for Privatization

The Perimeter Primate posts a piece by Oakland teacher Stephen Miller, who lays bare just about all the fault lines of the ed deformers. Here are a few excerpts:

[Right wing economist Milton] Friedman demanded the total privatization of schools. He claimed that the so-called “free market” is the best guarantee of efficiency, quality education and equality (not to mention modernizing the system) because it introduces competition, which provides “choice” for parents.

This is in essence the corporate model for education. It is being sold across the country to parents, especially minority parents, who are quite clear that the public schools are more segregated than ever, and who are desperate for something different. Nationally, a gaggle of reactionary billionaires (the Walton family, of Wal-Mart, Eli Broad, of KB homes and AIG Retirement, and Donald Fisher of the Gap) have suddenly become champions of equality and are pushing charter schools as the solution.

The government is getting out of the business of governing. So it should be no surprise that privatization is being forced on school systems across the country. The United States really has two highly segregated school systems. Suburban schools are the best in the world; urban schools are among the worst. Privatization is being forced on urban school districts alone.

What happens, then, when the government no longer handles public education? It is then absolved of this essential responsibility.

The big ideological push for a decade now is to make everything personal responsibility. Then it’s your fault if something goes wrong. Government no longer is even expected to provide equal access.

When was it that the problem started being described, as in the article above, as “the achievement gap” rather than the refusal of government to fulfill the historical demand for real equality? Why do we now just assume that corporations are somehow going to do this better for us and let governments off the hook? Where were these discussions held?

The idea of school choice is another “get rich quick scheme” that sounds good until it is examined. What happened in America that should we even have to choose at all

Schools push out the students who take more time and resources to educate. Once privatized, schools compete for the “good” students. Middle-class parents, who have the time and know-how to work the system, get their kids into the “right” schools. Parents from poorer families generally lack these resources and usually wind up taking whatever they are given.

To paraphrase… the law, in all of its magnificence, allows poor parents, as well as rich, to drive their students across town twice a day in their Porsche SUVs to insure their kids are receiving a quality education. “Choice” benefits parents who have the resources to choose. It simply does not carry the same guarantees as a “right”.

Markets have never solved social problems. They create them.

All we have to do is look around to find the answers. The “free market” Bailouts are creating social problems in all directions, not eliminating them. This is the inevitable result of turning the responsibility for public problems over to private forces. The privatizers are all about deregulating public schools by eliminating public control.

Markets are designed for profit making. Remember when Bill Clinton told us that corporations were the best institutions to tackle the national health care disaster? HMOs have made things much worse, producing the worst health care for the highest price in the industrial world – and – completely outside public control. Sharpton and Klein support the domination of EMOs (Educational Maintenance Organizations) and the elimination of the responsibility of government to address the concerns of society.

In a ironic fashion, the “free market” imposes an equality of sorts on all the peoples of the US. This is the equality of poverty and its misery.


Read it in full:
http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2009/04/pimping-for-privatization.html

Public Schools, Private Money

Mary Porter has left a new comment on your post: The Broad Prize for Losers:

Here's a note I sent to a member of congress who sits on the Finance Committee. I'm hoping others will take up the financial approach to rein in Arne Duncan's massive giveaway to the eduprofiteers, and save public education from Eli Broad.


Please take a moment to look this over, it points to specific hearings the Finance Committee can hold. Similar efforts by the New York City Council are underway now.

The New York City Council met April 1 to investigate education funding contracting, and they have found an excellent example of the oversight gap:
The Bloomberg administration created a "non-profit" foundation, The Fund for Public Schools, which does not need to file financial disclosure statements, submit contracts for bids, or meet public disclosure requirements in its sub-contracts, because it is a supposedly private entity. Here are the specifics, with links to other sources:

Public Schools, Private Money
April 2nd, 2009
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/04/02/public-schools-private-money/

I am asking the Finance Committee to conduct hearings similar to the one in NY City, to investigate current public gifts to the edubusiness industry, and to draft legislation requiring that all foundations which are designated to receive the Education Stimulus money be required to file full financial disclosure statements. All their subsequent subcontractors must do the same, to account for who eventually receives the public money.

Chicago Teachers Organize Against Privatization

With a severely weakened union, there's a new union caucus in town in Chicago. CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) organized the protest, which is being reported by Labor Notes.

Here's on interesting note in the articlem which I posted on norms notes with links active:

As Chicago’s school district has become increasingly run by private contractors, the 31,000-strong Chicago Teachers Union, an AFT affiliate, has seen its rolls plunge by 6,000.

Chicago Teachers Organize Against Privatization

See the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1v-dSTOsbc

The Core web site.

Philadelphia Story

A Washington Post article on June 26 talked about the failure of privatization efforts in Philly.
Another failed school system that Paul Vallas ran into the ground (see Chicago, New Orleans.) yet nothing sticks to Teflon Paul who is contemplating getting out of New Orleans before the shit hits the fan, as it usually does when he is involved and running for political office in Illinois.

Is Edison dead-ism?

Is the article below a sign Philly Supt. Arlene Ackerman is a closet leftist status quoer who believes in throwing money at the problem with lower class sizes and other things that might make a real difference? Note that the program expires after 3 years, just little enough time to claim failure:
See, throwing money at the problem does no good. Let's continue to close schools, open up charters, have a revolving door for teachers and all the other regressive ed reforms.
Leonie Haimson wrote:

Arlene Ackerman, new superintendent of Philly school district trying novel experiment – to put smaller classes and more support and guidance into "persistently violent schools" rather than more police and scanners. Seven Philadelphia schools received grant money out of the US Labor Dept.; NYC did not receive any and doubtful if it even applied for any.

Ackerman is also pulling back from privatization like the Edison schools, giving more scrutiny to charters, and just gave the heave-ho to the "interim chief academic officer, chief accountability officer and deputy chief academic officer. On top of that, the district eliminated more than 200 academic-coach jobs."

Let's hope that this reflects a new educational trend that may come our way someday soon – reversing the build-up of the bureaucracy and police at the expense of the classroom.

Read about it here or here.

In a sidelight, Diane Ravitch wrote to the NYC Education listserve:

Interesting that Philadelphia, known as a district with lots of problems, has a graduation rate no lower than NYC's.

Read all about the rally to oppose privatization

.... last Thursday at the ICE blog - with more pics, thanks to Jeff Kaufman.

The power of these protests is the chance to mingle with other rank and file trade unionists from other municipal unions.

Right: Protest leaders Billy (left) and Marvin (with bullhorn)


UFT Chapter Leader John Powers who has led and informed teachers about this issue speaks below.












Transit Workers were there too.

Report from the May 30th Anti_privatization March/Demo

The march [from GHI to Gov. Patterson's office] began with a surprise announcement that Randi Weingarten, the head of the Municipal Labor Council and the President of the UFT, had penned a letter to Superintendent Dinallo expressing concern about possible increases in premium rates and denial of access to care should the conversion be approved. She stated that the municipal unions were in the process of reviewing their support of the proposed conversion. This is an important victory for CAP since we have consistently argued that premium rates and access would be jeopardized by a for-profit carrier. Activists in ICE have also attempted to bring this message to the floor of the UFT Delegate Assembly for the past three months and have had many positive conversations with DA representatives.

Posted by CAP. Read the full report at Norm's Notes.

Where Are All the Catholic School Teachers?

Catholic school teachers in New York engaged in some job actions over the last week or so. Their pay and benefits are abysmal compared to NYC teachers. And they work with high class sizes and few admnistrators.

It is a well-known fact amongst certain ed reform voucher freaks that they are vastly superior teachers to those in the DOE. Just check results of their grad rates and on test scores (do their kids take the same tests as NYC kids, such as regents?), clearly the most important factor in determining quality teaching.

So, where are they? Why does NYC have to resort to expensive Teaching Fellow Programs? Or recruit abroad? Isn't the theory if you give people merit pay, they will flock to work in schools in poor neighborhoods? Or if they can make a few extra bucks by getting their kids to score high, they will have the incentive to work harder?

So, instead of standing on picket lines, what's keeping Catholic school teachers away from jumping on the money they can make so easily by coming over to a public school? Haven't they heard about the vastly improved system under Bloomberg and Klein after 6 years of leadership? Maybe Tweed needs a public relations campaign to tell these teachers about the wonderful opportunites to teach in our schools. Maybe even hire a few more PR people.

Big Business of Public Education Forum Attracts a Crowd

Updated Friday, Jan. 11

It was standing room only at today's Teachers Unite-sponsored forum on privatization. Speakers Michael Fiorillo and Leonie Haimson wowed the crowd with their knowledge and analysis of the privatization of public schools. Michael concentrated on the historical and broad context, while Leonie focused on the impact of BloomKlein on NYC.

Michael is an ESL teacher and chapter leader at Newcomers HS in Long Island City and Leonie is the founder and director of Class Size Matters and the co-founder of the NYC Public School Parents blog.

The mixed crowd consisted of teachers new to the system and veterans and there was a rousing discussion afterwards with some the fault lines between newbies and vets being exposed. Teachers Unite, under the direction of Sally Lee, will attempt to address some of these issues at future events. (We've talked about holding a "bridging the gap" open discussion at some point.)

Why have these forums (we've held 3 events so far) tempted over 50 teachers to come out on a Thursday afternoon/evening and attracted the interest of some influential people in the ed/political world (look for more fabulous speakers in the future)? Because these crucial discussions are taking place no where else. One of our goals will be to figure out how to include more audience participation as there were still many questions left unanswered and the sense that people would have staid around even longer.

I put together a list of resources for the participants and will post them later.
I videotaped the event and will try to get sections up on the web within the next 2 weeks.

Look for the next forum on big business and privatization on March 27.

Teachers Unite Presents – Jan. 10, 2008

THE BIG BUSINESS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION:
How will we reclaim public schools from privatization?

Thursday, January 10th, 5-7p.m.
Location TBA

Millions of dollars are exchanged between New York City’s Department of Education and private companies. How do these relationships impact our classrooms? What can be done about the seemingly inescapable trend of schools privatization?

Speakers:
Michael Fiorillo, Chapter Leader, Newcomers High School
Leonie Hamison, Executive Director, Class Size Matters

Discussion to follow.

Please RSVP to sally@teachersunite.net

This forum is the third in a series of events where educators can relate their experiences in schools to larger political trends. The 2007-2008 forums focus on the impact of privatization and the corporate model on classroom life in NYC public schools.

Teachers Unite provides leadership opportunities that build ties between educators and community organizers, and political education forums that build an informed teacher constituency. Teachers Unite is an organization for educators who act in solidarity with the communities they serve.

http://www.teachersunite.net

NOTE: See comment #1 as George Schmidt attempts to answer some of Sean's questions.

Sean Ahern raises the following thought-provoking questions:

I had some questions for the Jan 10 forum.

"How will we reclaim public schools from privatization?"

1) What is meant by "privatization" in NYC public schools?

2) Are public assets being sold or given away to private interests? Who's selling and who's buying? Are we talking about ownership or control? Who has lost what as a result of "privatization"?

3) Is it in the interests of the majority of educators and parents to seek a restoration of the old system, with the professional educrats and the UFT leadership back in the catbird seat? If not then what are we seeking to reclaim?

4) Most NYC public schools followed a factory model in the past. What are the differences and similarities between past and present models, between a public school and a privatized one? What do educators and parents and students want that neither past nor present systems provide?

5) Where is privatization coming from? Federal, state, city governments? "A Nation at Risk", NCLB, Put Children First, the Chicago model? Private companies, foundations?

6) Is Mayoral control a necessary component of "privatization"?

7) Do we have testimony from teachers, parents, students, comparing the privatized school with the public school?

8) Does this call to "reclaim public schools from privatization" seek to restore the past, in part or in whole?

9) Who is the "we" that can "reclaim" public schools and who is this "we" reclaiming it for? Does this "we" include the UFT leadership and educrats and pundits who exerted considerable influence over the public schools before privatization became a "seemingly inescapable trend"? Why did that "we" fail to stop "privatization"? What reason is there to believe that this "we" can or should "reclaim" it from the privatizers or that rank and file teachers and parents should be party to any effort to restore the claim of this "we" to control of the public schools? If this "we" includes rank and file teachers and parents of color along with the UFT leadership and leaders and pundits of the educracy such as Diane Ravitch, what changes will be made to empower educators and parents in a new system?

10) Are there any positive effects of privatization or Mayoral control from the standpoint of educators, parents and students that the latter might want to retain after public schools are "reclaimed".

Peace,
Sean

Competition and Education

The idea that making the public schools more competitive will somehow improve education is as ridiculous as saying having public fire, police and sanitation departments compete with private competitors will lead to better service.

It's like saying that if we allocated public money to send a competing army over to Iraq, led by, say, Haliburton or Blackstone, the war would have run smoother. Oh, yea, been there, done that. See how well it worked out?

Yet that is exactly what has become the national mantra in what should loosely be termed "education reform" – very loosely. When the voucher idea didn't get enough traction, the charter school idea was seized upon. What is behind all of this is the opportunity for a lot of people to shake loose a lot of public ed money and divert it into the private sphere. And that means the undermining public schools.

Richard Kahlenberg makes the point many times in his book, Tough Liberal, how often Al Shanker spoke about the support of rigorous public schools as being essential to the maintenance of a democratic society, ironically, not to be applied to the idea of a democratic union. Doubly ironic, since Shanker was the father of the concept of Charter Schools. I'm not up to that chapter yet, but I will assume at this point that Shanker did not mean them in today's incarnation. What would he think of the 2 UFT charter schools draining public and private money (Broad foundation, etc.)

This post inpired by:
"We seem to live in an era of privatization. Here in NYC the mayor believes in privatizing and so does Joel Klein. There is this mantra that private is better. I think that the Iraq war is the first privatized war. I think that history will show that it was one of the most inefficient corrupt wars ever conducted..," says blogger Life After the Rubber Room.

Privatization & Mayoral Control

Mayoral control of school systems is a symptom rather than a cause. What has occurred is privatization of policy over public schools, where people like Eli Broad and Bill Gates get to use their private money to make public policy and shape urban public school system the way they want to without public oversight. Mayoral control is their instrument since it allows then to do their thing without having to open themselves up to public scrutiny. All they have to do is get Bloomberg, et al on board, which is easy to do by the offer of money.

Can you imagine them getting away with this in places like Scarsdale? "We think you should break up your high school into small schools."

All over this nation, local people have some say over their schools. But not the people in urban areas that have given themselves over to mayoral control. When the UFT agreed to this model, we should not pretend they did not know what they hath done. They hath proven themselves part of the Broad/Gates cabal of corporate takeover of the public schools to the detriment of students, teacher, parents and the general public.