UFT Ex Bd member Ronnie Almonte Superb Summary - The UFT's Health Care Strategy is a Race to the Bottom

Union officials justified these concessions by invoking talking points you’d expect to hear from the boss: rising medical costs are hurting the employer’s pockets, there are workers who are taking advantage of the more costly benefits (e.g., hospital visits), and besides, others have it worse. These points were repeated by UFT officials at this October’s Delegate Assembly meeting. They serve to defend past—and future—health care givebacks.... Ronnie Almonte

I loved this piece so much I read it 3 times and am sharing it all over the place. It is one of those articles I have wanted to write myself but too many brain cells are not operating at full speed. And he included my favorite comparison to the UFT position on healthcare with the arguments charter schools make.

UFT officials have gone so far as to echo talking points used by ed reformers hellbent on privatizing public education. It’s tragic to witness at Executive Board and Delegate Assembly meetings. The UFT officials consecrate the idea of “choice” (of the city to provide multiple, if unequal, health plans), just as charter school companies invoke parental “choice” to plunder money and space from purposefully underfunded public schools. They insist the amendment will increase our bargaining power, but its decades-long decay is precisely how we got here, grasping at straws. They even deny that Medicare Advantage is private because it’s federally funded, revealing a spectacular obliviousness to both history and logic. School vouchers are government funded; for decades they have covered tuition at private schools for the families who use them. Medicare Advantage, unlike Medicare, is managed by big, for-profit insurance companies.

Choice has become a right wing trope. The UFT is using the same terminology. I asked Mulgrew at the RTC meeting the other day why the UFT is joining Republican attempts to gut Medicare -- well actually so are the Democrats.

The UFT's Health Care Strategy is a Race to the Bottom

The union's new push to privatize Medicare for public sector retirees hurts everyone but insurance companies

Ronnie Almonte Oct 20

 https://www.ronniealmonte.com/p/the-ufts-health-care-strategy-is

Negotiations over a new DOE-UFT contract just started—a month after the old one expired—and already it’s looking bad. The city implied that it would not bargain over salary raises until the public sector unions can come up with additional health care savings, according to an email from UFT President Michael Mulgrew. The unions, who negotiate over health care together through the Municipal Labor Council (MLC), have reduced the city’s liability by $4.5 billion since 2014, when they became junior partners in the de Blasio administration’s efforts to cut costs. But the 2014 health care savings agreement—which was followed by a second in 2018—was a bad move for union members. Not only did it raise costs for NYC’s public sector workers and restrict their access to care. It set a terrible precedent of exchanging health care cuts for meager salary raises, hamstringing our influence over the bargaining process as we’re seeing now.

The 2014 and 2018 agreements imposed new burdens on public sector workers. Co-pays for urgent care and hospital visits tripled in 2016, for example. A form of two-tier health care rolled out in 2018, where new hires were forced into the (still premium-free) HIP-HMO plan without the choice of enrolling in the popular GHI-PPO plan—itself a violation of the UFT contract*. Union officials justified these concessions by invoking talking points you’d expect to hear from the boss: rising medical costs are hurting the employer’s pockets, there are workers who are taking advantage of the more costly benefits (e.g., hospital visits), and besides, others have it worse. These points were repeated by UFT officials at this October’s Delegate Assembly meeting. They serve to defend past—and future—health care givebacks.

The MLC’s newest savings scheme would throw retirees under the bus. It would force them to switch from Medicare and the Medigap insurance (which covers whatever Medicare doesn’t) that the city pays for, to a privately managed but federally-funded Medicare Advantage plan. This would save the city another $600 million a year, and the idea is to funnel that savings into the underfunded Health Stabilization Fund (HSF) to cover health care costs for in-service workers. Retirees have resisted this switch, pointing out that Medicare Advantage companies (many of whom are being investigated for fraud) are for-profit, and maximize their profit margins by withholding care from patients, through strategies such as excessive prior approvals. Retirees would be able to keep their Medicare but pay $191 monthly (double for couples) out their own pockets. This scheme would have gone into effect earlier this year, but a judge blocked its roll out. The city is required by law (Administrative Code 12-126) to offer a premium-free health plan to in-service workers, retirees, and dependents and pay the equivalent of the full cost of the HIP-HMO plan. Most people are on the GHI-PPO plan, which is slightly more expensive, so the city uses the HSF to pay the difference. The city would be breaking the law if it stopped paying Medigap insurance because it’s legally required to pay for a plan, and Medicare Advantage, again, is federally funded. The judge’s decision was a victory for retirees, who for over a year have been protesting the city as well as the union officials whom they rightfully see as complicit.

But this victory was temporary, and the MLC’s steadfast commitment to Medicare Advantage now endangers all union members. In September the MLC’s union presidents (led by UFT’s Mulgrew) voted—without consulting the rank-and-file they’re supposed to represent—to lobby the City Council to amend Administrative Code 12-126, the law that protects quality, premium-free health care. Mulgrew insisted at the October DA meeting that any amendment would preserve premium-free coverage for retirees and in-service workers alike. He and the MLC want the law amended such that the city can legally create different plan options, with different funding benchmarks, to different “classes” of individuals—in this case, in-service workers and retirees. Not only is this a lot of hoops-jumping to save money for an employer who always cries broke. It’s also quite the Pandora’s box to open. In the short-term, the amendment could mean a lower benchmark for the city’s contribution and thus the replacement of GHI with an inferior premium-free plan. Indeed, in June the city and the MLC put out a request for information from different insurance companies. In the long-term, since the amendment would eliminate equal treatment in health coverage, it would establish a precedent for the city to later group in-service workers into classes with unequal coverage.

What a mess. UFT and DC37 officials blame it on rising health care costs, but this train wreck was also caused by years of union inaction. When the 2014 health care savings agreement was made, the UFT allowed the city to use $1 billion from the HSF to pay for retroactive raises. Most public sector employees, including UFT members, had worked years under Mayor Bloomberg without new contracts and raises. The UFT’s strategy, which was no strategy at all, was to wait out Bloomberg. But in the end, Bloomberg won. Not only was he able to get the workers themselves to pay for their meager, overdue raises (unions contribute to the HSF). Bloomberg successfully enlisted the union officials to supervise the slow-motion erosion of their members’ salaries and benefits. The plan to wait out Bloomberg led the MLC, with the UFT and DC37 at its helm, to strike a Faustian bargain with new mayor Bill de Blasio—one where payment for money owed would establish a zero-sum game between raises and health care for now and forever. By not choosing confrontation, the unions got co-optation.

Decades of concessionary bargaining and top-down unionism have truly conservatized the labor officialdom. UFT officials have gone so far as to echo talking points used by ed reformers hellbent on privatizing public education. It’s tragic to witness at Executive Board and Delegate Assembly meetings. The UFT officials consecrate the idea of “choice” (of the city to provide multiple, if unequal, health plans), just as charter school companies invoke parental “choice” to plunder money and space from purposefully underfunded public schools. They insist the amendment will increase our bargaining power, but its decades-long decay is precisely how we got here, grasping at straws. They even deny that Medicare Advantage is private because it’s federally funded, revealing a spectacular obliviousness to both history and logic. School vouchers are government funded; for decades they have covered tuition at private schools for the families who use them. Medicare Advantage, unlike Medicare, is managed by big, for-profit insurance companies. Bloomberg Businessweek states, “Selling private versions of the U.S. government health program for seniors—known as Medicare Advantage plans—is among the fastest-growing and most profitable markets in health care.” UFT officials have claimed to be for federal universal health care. But if they succeed at imposing Medicare Advantage, they will have helped channel money to the greatest opponents to single payer. The UFT has really tied itself in knots, and we’re all paying for it.

We’re up against a mayor so draconian that he had cut school budgets while sitting on billions of dollars of federal COVID relief money. Labor stands a lot to lose, but also win if it can adjust its sails. Reversing the decades-long trend of givebacks would help attract and retain educators, whose growing experience will help improve academic outcomes. Fighting for pro-worker policies would help restore legitimacy that unions have lost for accommodating to pro-rich agendas. The UFT talks a big game about its influence in City Hall and Albany. Instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the MLC should demand that new contracts be funded, for example, by the city’s rainy day fund, its federal COVID relief fund, or the State’s stock transfer tax for which Wall Street gets rebated billions each year. The UFT should also support, rather than oppose, the NY Health Act whose implementation would remove a bargaining chip from the city. It’s a challenge, but the future of public education, and of municipal unionism, relies on achieving victories over austerity.

---

*Article Three, “Salaries and Benefits of Day School Teachers,” Heading G, “Health Insurance and Welfare Fund Benefits,” Section One, “Choice of Health Plans,” paragraph one of the UFT Teachers Contract reads: “The Board agrees to arrange for, and make available to each day school teacher, a choice of health and hospital insurance coverage from among designated plans and the Board agrees to pay the full cost of such coverage.”

 

 

Stop the UFT/MLC Shilling for Corporate Healthcare/Wealthcare/Mulgrewcare Ghouls Attempt to Gut only Public Option

Medicare Advantage communications toolkit:

• One-page handout: “The Problem with Medicare Advantage”
• PNHP statement: “CMS Should Terminate the Medicare Advantage Program”
• PowerPoint slides: Medicare Advantage 2022 update, developed by Dr. Ed Weisbart 
• Podcast: “More like Medicare Disadvantage, AMIRITE?” featuring Dr. Susan Rogers

 

Today is the first in-person/hybrid UFT Retired Teacher meeting where we will get yet another propaganda feast from UFT Welfare chief Jeff Sorkin with a gaggle of sycophants echoing the Unity Caucus line --- rising healthcare costs not due to profit making corporate ghouls but because retired UFT members go to the emergency room or to doctors too much. 

Below I'm posting the Physicians for a National Healthcare Program.

But first a must read by James Eterno who breaks things down brilliantly:

MLC UNIONS HAVE A FEW OPTIONS NOW ON HEALTHCARE

If you want to see why we are in a fix on healthcare, you have to very closely read the 2019-2021 and recurring thereafter Municipal Labor Committee (umbrella group of city unions) Agreement with the City on healthcare. 

The City and MLC met their targets on savings from this Agreement for the 2019-2021 fiscal years from the last round of collective bargaining. A big part of that was forcing new employees onto HIP HMO for their first year on the job even though this is a huge violation of the UFT Contract that guarantees UFT members a choice of premium-free plans.

The City and MLC were not content to stop there but further agreed to additional healthcare savings (givebacks). Now, we are told we have to replenish the Health Stabilization Fund, a fund started back in 1983 that the City draws from. The City is always going to demand further givebacks on healthcare....Read it all

Also check out Arthur Goldstein who finally turned against the healthcare changes: 

Unity is not thinking ahead. This plan is exactly why they won this year by the lowest percentage ever, and exactly why they could lose the next election. Having dealt extensively with the major opposition party, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. It's beyond disappointing that this is all we can muster in such a potentially vibrant and effective union. We, the UFT, are poorly informed and not remotely as active as we could be....the entire Medicare Advantage plan was abysmally planned. It lacked vision, and MLC didn't bother at all to prepare for the totally predictable outcry that ensued. Some leaders have their heads planted firmly in the sand, and are still insisting that everything is perfectly fine. However, this is a disaster, no matter how much makeup they paint over it....

NYC Educator

The MLC Medicare Advantage Plan --- 

October 18, 2022 Dear colleague, You’ve no doubt seen the ads, so I don’t need to tell you that Medicare’s open enrollment period has officially begun. Every year, commercial health insurers are allowed to chip away at our most important public health program by offering Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to America’s seniors, and this year’s enrollment period comes at an especially crucial time in our fight against the privatization of Medicare. Projections indicate that by next year, more than half of Medicare beneficiaries will have enrolled in MA, putting the care of millions under the control of profit-seeking corporations and emboldening those who seek to hand our public programs to the private sector entirely.  At the same time, the Direct Contracting program continues its infiltration of Traditional Medicare, as participating entities have compromised the health plans of nearly 2 million beneficiaries, often without their full knowledge or consent. Starting January 1, 2023, this program will kick into overdrive as an expanded cohort of so-called “REACH entities” is given the opportunity to “manage” seniors’ care … in exchange for hefty profits. What’s wrong with this picture? Look no further than a recent bombshell New York Times article, which builds on PNHP’s expertise and research to expose the ugly truth: MA insurers are accused of exploiting the program to extract millions of dollars from taxpayers while denying care to their beneficiaries. Shockingly, several of these exact same companies have won approval to participate in the REACH program. Open enrollment is the perfect opportunity for PNHP members to highlight the greed of commercial health insurers and the danger of allowing them to further infiltrate Medicare. We’re encouraging everybody to write an op-ed or letter to the editor of your local newspaper describing the dangers of Medicare Advantage, the looming threat of REACH, and the urgent need for single-payer Medicare for All. Here are some resources to help you get started: Medicare Advantage communications toolkit: One-page handout: “The Problem with Medicare Advantage” PNHP statement: “CMS Should Terminate the Medicare Advantage Program” PowerPoint slides: Medicare Advantage 2022 update, developed by Dr. Ed Weisbart  Podcast: “More like Medicare Disadvantage, AMIRITE?” featuring Dr. Susan Rogers NYT article: “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable: How Insurers Exploited Medicare Advantage for Billions” Medicare’s open enrollment period only lasts through Dec. 7, so now is the time to write your op-ed or letter to the editor. Consider using the following talking points when writing about this complicated issue: Medicare Advantage is only able to offer low premiums and out-of-pocket caps by delaying or denying care on the back end, and by discouraging the sickest patients from enrolling. Medicare Advantage allows seniors to choose their health plan, but it restricts the much more crucial choice of doctor and hospital by using narrow provider networks. Commercial health insurers will never be satisfied with even their current, outrageous profits. Starting in January, the REACH program will allow many of these same companies to “manage” the care of seniors who have declined to participate in Medicare Advantage.  So long as we allow profit-seekers to control our health, they will deny us care, stick us with exorbitant costs, and keep the lion’s share for themselves. The only true solution to our country’s health care problem is Medicare for All, but if we allow corporations to take over Medicare, we will never see it achieved. If you have any questions or would like advice on your op-eds and letters, please reach out to our Communications Specialist, Gaurav Kalwani, at gaurav@pnhp.org. If writing isn’t your preferred method of engagement, consider using this toolkit as a basis for a presentation to colleagues, conversation with community members, or relationship-building exercise with local organizations. Any way we can get the message out will help move our cause forward. At this crucial juncture, we must make our voices heard and stop the capture of Medicare by corporate profiteers. We can only do this if we all speak up, and speak as one. Sincerely,

Susan Rogers, M.D. President

Physicians for a National Health Program 29 E Madison St Ste 1412 | Chicago, Illinois 60602 312-782-6006 | info@pnhp.org

 

It's the economy stupid - Bernie TRASHES Dems for Abortion OBSESSION - Republican Wave On the way

Caught between a bad economy and not wanting to offend big donors, Democrats have not aired a unified populist message hammering the business profiteering fueling inflation. Instead, they have spent much of their resources — $67 million — on ads related to abortion rights, a topic of heightened significance after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but one that does not raise the ire of their corporate sponsors nor generate as much interest from midterm voters this year, according to recent survey data.

The lack of focus from Democrats on the economy and inflation comes as recent polls from the Washington Post and Monmouth University found that the top two most important issues among voters are the economy and inflation — far outpacing abortion... The Lever

The only explanation for [Democrats] political malpractice [in not holding Republicans accountable for anti-worker policies] is fear of making promises they might have to keep.... Krystal Ball

Krystal comments on Bernie Sanders' urgent call for Democrats to give midterm voters an economic message and think bigger than their abortion obsession.

And did you see Warnock's pathetic performance in the debate against Walker?

 

What about the Dem Achilles heel - inflation? Bernie had an answer on Meet the Press this morning - he points to inflation rates world wide to show Dem policy is not at fault. You don't hear other Dems saying that. Then on raising interest rates -- he is opposed - you don't hear many Dems saying that either.

 

I agree with Bernie's message and think the Dems are making a big mistake to focus mostly on abortion. Initially it was THE Issue. Over a few months the impact has lost a bit of the edge.  

 

Bernie points out how Republicans oppose every single issue that helps people with the economy. Dems just ignore the fact that Republicans oppose everything and focus on culture war issues.

 

Dems will lose bigger than most expect this time and the party is guilty -- and incompetent in so many areas. I don't love Tim Ryan but he's in the game and Dem strategy seems to have given up on him. Same with North Carolina. And Dems incompetence in Florida have turned a purple state red.

It's always the economy Stupid!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFbCUKajSPE

 

 

 https://www.levernews.com/dems-barely-messaging-on-economic-issues/

Dems Barely Messaging On Economic Issues

Republicans are spending Democrats into the ground on economic issues and inflation.

A National Republican Senatorial Committee ad attacking Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) over inflation.

Two Rallies, A March down Broadway and a Funeral for the attempt by city and Mulgrew to modify Admin Code 12-126

Oh how they are keeping us old folk busy. I took the 10:15 ferry and when I got to City Hall around 11:45 there was already a big crowd. I was put on video duty so taped the rally which was very impressive with countless city unions repped. 

The Del Ass had so many angles I have to do a series of posts. But first --- the outside game. The entry to 52 was so crowded with people handing stuff out, I can understand why some people refused to take. I had only 100 Retiree Advocate leaflets (see a section with bullets on Admin code 12-126 and why changing it is a scam game cooked up by certain union leaders and the city and that was all I gave out. If I had more I would have stayed around to hand out to people coming out at 6 but I decided to take an early ferry back home.  

By the way -- if the city, as Mulgrew claims, can just impose a MedDISAdv plan on retirees unilaterally, WHY do they want to join the UFT etc in changing the code? What's in it for them? (Tip of hat to Daniel Alicea for pointing this out. - and James reminds me it was he who coined MulgrewCare - so tip of hat to him too.)

The outside game is so much more fun than being inside the DA. Wednesday was a long day with a large rally on Broadway outside the gates to the City Council as people from numerous unions lined the roadway urging everyone who went in not to change the admin code that opens the door to healthcare changes for retirees and in- service members, being pushed by both the City and the bigger unions in the MLC, with the UFT being the biggest, leading naturally to a lot of anti-Mulgrew sentiment. When a retired firefighter played a game of identify the scab, when he called out "UFT" the crowd responded with a loud "Mulgrew."

There's a lot of back story and front story. I don't even know where to start. 

The focus of the rallies was the joint city and (some) unions attempt to change the city council admin code 12-126 which is accomplished would affect not only retiree health care.

The rallies were built reinforced by this LEAKED AUDIO WITH COMMENTARY from Marianne Pizzitola: MLC Meeting on Admin Code 12-126 Amendment.

Eterno has a deep report: LEAKED RECORDING OF MLC MEETING SHOWS MULGREW LEADING CHARGE TO WEAKEN LAW PROTECTING CITY WORKER AND RETIREE HEALTHCARE

Jonathon Halabi posted these points from this illuminating leaked MLC meeting tape with commentary by Marianne. James Eterno spent hours listening to it and said it is a  must listen in order to understand what is going down. If you have 3 hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z21zhQ89e0

Marianne Pizzitola (retired EMT, leader of the group that's fighting Medicare Advantage) gets interviewed, and then listens to a leaked tape of an MLC (Municipal Labor Coalition) meeting.

3:40 - 7:00 she lays out the history of 12-126 (administrative code)

7:00 - 20:00 she lays out the current struggle, including implications for retirees AND in service.

20:00 - 38:00 is Mulgrew, Nespoli, and Klinger (lawyer)

At 39:15 - 43:00 the PSC rep speaks very clearly about what the options are, and why the PSC is opposing it. I think it should be mandatory to listen to this.

At 43:00  Alan Klinger says that they are putting out an RFP for in-service member health care.

 I took some photos of different unions:

Here's a livestream of the City Hall rally.

 

https://youtu.be/XqYoa96sPoU

 

 

 

And the march from City Hall down to 52 Broadway and the rally outside the DA from 3:30-4:30. The You tube channel is NYCforYourself.

NYC Retired Workers March from City Hall to UFT HQ to Call for Protection of Health Care Benefits

https://youtu.be/6BO5GN0cUJs

 

And here's a breakdown of why we don't want to buy what Mulgrew is selling on changing the admin code from the Retiree Advocate newsletter:

Healthcare Benefits threatened: Call your city council members to tell them to vote NOT TO CHANGE Administrative Code 12-126.

 

● Changing Administrative Code 12-126 would end the legal protection of retirees and current workers' premium-free health insurance.

● Private Medicare Advantage plans spend 25% less on patient care than traditional Medicare: more out of pocket expenses, fewer doctor choices, delays and denials of care, and even deaths. Patients on Medicare Advantage plans who get serious illnesses often flee back to traditional Medicare.

● The Adams Administration is pushing this change in order to do an “end run” around the fact that retirees won a lawsuit protecting our Medicare with supplemental insurance. The Court stated that the City could not force retirees to pay an extra $191 per month if they wanted to opt out of the Medicare Advantage Plan the city was forcing them into.

● Ultimately about 65,000 retirees chose to opt out of this plan, which shows how strongly retirees object to the Medicare Advantage Plan. The number would have been much higher but thousands of low paid municipal workers (mostly women and persons of color) cannot afford $191/month to keep quality traditional Medicare with the supplement they now have. NYC and our union should not encourage inequity in access to health care.

● Changing the Administrative Code would allow the City and the Municipal Labor Committee to create separate classes of workers (i.e. current employees, retirees) who would get separate classes (inferior quality) insurance. Given what the MLC is trying to do to retiree health coverage, “other groups” will be offered inferior plans to what they currently have.

● Code 12-126 requires the City to offer healthcare plans that cost less than the benchmark HIP-HMO premium. The amendment would allow the city to lower the HIP HMO bench mark currently at $900/month to a low $7.50/month and charge union members higher premiums for most healthcare plans.

● This savings will allow Michael Mulgrew to repay his 2014, $1 billion “loan” from the Health Stabilization fund that he depleted, to cover salary raises. He promised to repay by 2022.

● Medicare Advantage saves money for local and state entities that have existing health plans for retirees, but it does so by shifting the cost from the local government to the federal government. Either way, the taxpayer still pays. It’s a shell game and the health industry walks away with their pockets full.

 

Exposing MulgrewCare - Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is "Heist" by Private Firms to Defraud the Public

Exposing the farce of the UFT leadership attempt to move us out of Medicare and into a Medicare Advantage disadvantage.

Democracy Now with Wendall Potter says what we've been saying all along - Medicare Advantage is not Medicare nor is it an advantage - it is medicare DISAdvantage.

 https://youtu.be/YEgNxlrfygI

 

MEDIA ADVISORY: RALLY WILL URGE CITY COUNCIL NOT TO CHANGE HEALTH BENEFITS FOR ACTIVE AND RETIRED WORKERS

For immediate release

 

RALLY WILL URGE CITY COUNCIL NOT TO CHANGE HEALTH BENEFITS FOR ACTIVE AND RETIRED WORKERS

Scores of city retirees will gather at City Hall Park on Wednesday, Oct. 12, to urge city council members not to change a city law that protects the health benefits of both active and retired municipal workers. Mayor Eric Adams has pushed for the change to a section of the city’s Administrative Code 12-126.

No amendment has yet been formally introduced, but a retiree group has obtained internal communications showing that the change favored by the mayor could upend benefits that have attracted people to city jobs for generations.  The communication includes comments that the City will "eat the $1 billion it's owed" if the Municipal Labor Committee agrees to change the Code, in addition to other changes. 

Date:  Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, coinciding with in-person City Council general meeting

Schedule:  Demonstration including video displays on truck: 12:15 pm to 2:00 pm, Broadway near Park Place

Press conference and speakers, including Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York Organization of Public Service Retirees 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm, same location as above

Demonstration continues at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, 3:30 to 4:30 pm

 

Media contact: Marianne Pizzitola

Oct. 12 12:15 PM - Marianne and MulgrewCare Truck at Two Must Show Healthcare Rallies Wednesday - City Council and Delegate Assembly -Turnout numbers count

If you are a retiree, tomorrow is the day for you to show up and be counted at one or both events.

 

The city council will be voting soon on the future of your health care. Tomorrow  12:15, press conference around 1 at City Hall, followed at 3:30 a few blocks away at 52 Broadway where we show numbers to Mulgrew and crew. Keep the pressure on both the politicians and UFT leadership.

 

For working UFT members, this is the first delegate assembly of the year. Show Mulgrew you won't accept healthcare cuts.

 

Reports are coming in on new deductibles and co-pays. If we are silent it will only get worse.

Norm

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022

I posted yesterday about the two rallies coming up on Wednesday:

Rally Wednesday Oct. 12 Protest Changes in NYC Admin Code as NYC Firefighters Union Push New York City Council to Stop Messing with Retirees’ Healthcare

We hear the big screen truck will be joining us with Mulgrew videos following us downtown on Broadway. We have sound and speakers -  and Marianne Pizzitola will speak at both rallies - a bunch of UFT war horses met with her on zoom last week to fill her in on how the UFT operates. Her videos below are a sample.

Here is a new leaflet focused on the DA.

Here is the posting by The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

NYC Employee & Retiree Benefits at risk

 

Rally Wednesday Oct. 12 Protest Changes in NYC Admin Code as NYC Firefighters Union Push New York City Council to Stop Messing with Retirees’ Healthcare

We are asking everyone who cherishes the healthcare benefits they earned to come to City Hall and let the City Council hear and see you!   Urge them NOT TO CHANGE Administrative Code 12-126 and protect us from those urging changes to a law that has protected us since 1967. We then will head down the block to UFT HQ and tell Michael Mulgrew of the UFT to keep his hands off our benefits and stop selling them for his own wages!  ....

The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

Here is the RALLY INFO FLYER    AND THE ISSUE FACT SHEET

 

This is a joint rally with CROC- Cross Union Organizing Committee, along with Retiree Advocate, groups that have been leading the way in the battle.

 

The Court stated that the City could not force retirees into paying an extra $191 per month if they wanted to opt out of an inferior privatized Medicare Advantage Plan they were being forced into. Since the victory was based on the NYC Administrative Code, the city is now doing an end run by trying to get the Council to change the law!

 

And our own UFT leadership is leading the way by working with the city to mess with our health plans. 

 

 

The more unions that push back the better.

 

Bravest Push New York City Council to Stop Messing with Retirees’ Healthcare

https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/bravest-push-new-york-city-council-to-stop-messing-with-retirees-healthcare

Oct 9

“We have a lot of retirees that are calling that are confused as to why there is a need for a law change. They are against any of these changes.” — UFA President Andy Ansbro. Photo courtesy of FDNY

By Bob Hennelly

A split within the Municipal Labor Committee over the future of the healthcare coverage for New York City’s 250,000 municipal retirees is playing out behind the scenes at the City Council over a controversial MLC proposal to change the city’s Administrative Code 12-126 that requires the City Council’s  approval. 

The MLC is the umbrella organization for scores of unions that represent over 300,000 municipal workers. The change, which would alter the existing language covering healthcare for retirees, is also supported by the city’s Office of Labor Relations and the Adams administration.

The controversy is an outgrowth of last year’s successful retiree revolt against then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Municipal Labor Committee’s proposal to shift retirees to a privatized Medicare Advantage program in hopes of realizing some savings.

City Hall and the MLC said the plan, branded as Retiree Health Alliance, which was going to be run by Anthem and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, would produce $600 million in savings with no degradation in coverage. Retired civil servants and the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees  countered the change threatened retirees’ continuity of care, would cost more and would cover less.

Tens of thousands of city retirees opted out. One key issue was a requirement that city retirees who opted out of the new offering would have to pay a $191 monthly premium for their old plan. Subsequently,  the two health insurance companies fronting the controversial plan withdrew. 

The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees successfully challenged  the city in court bringing the implementation of the plan to a standstill at the start of the Adam’s administration. That litigation continues. 

In his decision, Judge Lyle Frank, ruled that thanks to the city’s Administrative Code 12-126, on the books since the 1960s, the city was obliged to continue providing retirees with their healthcare without charging them a premium.

Marianne Pizzitola is a retired FDNY EMT and was a member of DC 37’s Local 2507. Pizzitola is also the president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees. In a Sept. 24 op-ed in the Daily News she praised the city’s existing administrative code that guaranteed “the city would pay for a choice of health insurance plans—up to a defined dollar cap. For 55 years, every teacher, firefighter, police officer, nurse and others who served the city knew  they would have access to a health insurance plan that met their families’ needs.”

Last month, the MLC voted to ask the City Council to alter the Administrative Code 12-126 as requested by the city’s Office of Labor Relations to clear the way for the implementation of a Medicare Advantage program.

The vote was not unanimous. 

Though the MLC’s largest unions like District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers, Teamsters Local 831 (Uniformed Sanitation-men’s Association) support the change, several unions opposed it, including the Uniformed Fire Officers Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association. 

In a Sept. 9 letter to his members, James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress explained why his union opposed the change.

“The proposed change eliminates the HIP-HMO rate as the single standard for determining the City’s obligation to pay for health insurance for city employees, retirees and their dependents,” explained Davis. “Under current law, the city is required to ‘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 HIP-HMO…’ (NYC Administrative Code, section 12-1260.)

Harry Nespoli, chair of the MLC and the president of Teamsters Local 831 did not return a call seeking comment. 

Retirees who oppose the shift to a Medicare Advantage plan point to a recent study by the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General  that found the plans run by for profit providers showed that the “plans  sometimes denied or delayed patients’ access to medically necessary services, even though the requests met Medicare coverage rules.”

“We have a lot of retirees that are calling that are confused as to why there is a need for a law change. They are against any of these changes,” UFA President Andy Ansbro said during a phone interview.  “They want to keep their healthcare plan the way it is and they have reached out to us demanding that we get in front of this and we have explained to them that we have been a no vote on this change and at this point it is in the City Council’s hands and if they wish to make their voice heard they have to call their City Council member and speak to them and we ask that they speak with them respectfully but just get your point across you don’t believe this law should, be changed.”

 Ansbro continued. “The down side is we don’t know what the long term consequences are. We understand the short term consequences if they feel they will be able to make their Medicare Advantage Plan legal but if the courts rule that what you are trying to do is illegal, trying to change the law is not the way to go about it. You should go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that’s actually legal.”

“The UFOA voted no in the MLC Steering committee and again voted NO in the general membership meeting,” wrote FDNY Lieut. James McCarthy in a text. “The fight against the change in the administrative code continues on the the City Council. Our active and retired members will also be expressing their opposition to the City Council.”

“The changes proposed would allow New York City, with the approval of the majority of the MLC, to create different classes of employees in reference to health insurance,” warned a UFOA blast email to all of its members and retirees. “This change would then allow New York City to give different health insurance plans to each class. The proposal will also remove HIP HMO as the benchmark for establishing the rate that the city must pay to maintain premium free healthcare for all active and retired members. This seismic change in language MUST BE STOPPED!”

The UFOA continued. “How did we get here…. Over a year ago NYC rolled out the option of Medicare Advantage and described it as a mirror of the current Senior Care Plan. The reality was our members' benefits and access to healthcare would be diminished. Multiple lawsuits were filed, and the rollout of Medicare Advantage was delayed by the judge’s ruling. The City has appealed, and the case will be heard in October. As a result of this pending decision, the city has chosen to change the Administrative Code.”

State Senator Gustavo Rivera, chair of the Senate Health Committee, is a one of the lead sponsors of the New York Health Act which calls for establishing a single payer healthcare system that would decouple healthcare coverage from employment.

“We are at a moment where we have to take all the realities that are around us and think about how we actually solve the problems that are before us,” Rivera said. “Committing ourselves by doubling down on a system that has insurance companies at its core is exactly the wrong direction to go in. But this is exactly what’s happening with the city shifting retirees' benefits for the sake of ‘saving money’—when what you are really doing is taking away the benefits that were negotiated  for the folks that are retirees. What I am telling these retirees and everybody else, is that healthcare is a right and we should act like it.”