Sunday, December 25, 2022

Fred Smith with his annual XMAS Poem - 2022 version

All manner of assaults devastate Mother Earth.
Corporations put profits above human worth
--- Fred Smith, Xmas 2022 Poem excerpt
another year, 
another poem from Fred.
not a lot of cheer
in a dismal year. 
But we will always have Fred's
Photo with NY Jets Dancers
For Flair
--- Norm's feeble attempt at rhyme

I first met Fred, a testing expert who used to work as a statistician for the old NYCBOE, when he contacted me about getting ICE members to assist in gathering data for his exposures of the evils of testing I think sometime around 2008. He then got involved with groups like GEM and Change the Stakes and was a co-winner with me and Danny Dromm of Leonie Haimson's Skinny Award in 2018 - (June 19 - I'm a Skinny: Honored to be honored by Leonie Haimson along with the Great Danny Dromm and Fred Smith.)

Fred Smith has done it again for 2022 with is yearly Xmas specials.

Here are his previous years, each with a different theme. 2019 seems to be absent.
Fred is also a statistician for the NY Jets - don't blame him for their absence from the Super Bowl for over 50 years.

Fred Smith convincing Jets dancers to boycott field tests - he's the one in the middle

 

Fred Smith with his annual Xmas Poem —2022

 
We have to laugh and be optimistic to keep from crying... SleepyBlush


Christmas 2022 
 
From North Pole to South Pole, ’22’s been a mess.
‘Twas enough to leave Santa in a state of distress.                    
 
All-day cable kept pounding loud noise in his head;
The news sent him spinning and straight to his bed.
 
Reindeer were moaning and his disheartened elves    
Didn’t want to make more toys to re-stock the shelves.
 
The world seemed bereft of its natural rhythm.
Would this holy night be without him or with him?
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All manner of assaults devastate Mother Earth.
Corporations put profits above human worth:
 
Ice caps keep melting; fires destroy forest ranges;
Storms pour down floods, while pols deny plague-like changes.
 
Polarization’s become the norm in our states;
Trash talk flowing freely in degrading debates.
 
Pro-life activists who are against gun restrictions,
Hold both viewpoints despite the clear contradictions.
 
Each hour he was hearing about war in Ukraine;
Continuous suffering and far too much pain.
 
Inflation and hate crimes rising without any end;
School and shopping mall murders tracking a tragic trend.
 
And supreme godly judges from the loftiest heights
Letting state legislatures limit people's birthrights.
 
Another flu cycle and Covid keeps morphing,
As we welcome winter—more folks unmasked and coughing.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
So, Santa felt down and couldn’t get going,                  
Or force being jolly behind hollow Ho Ho-ing?               
 
Oh, how he missed Macy’s when kids had his ear,
Whispering wishes, “I was good the whole year…”
 
Though he twice-checked all the names on his “Nice” children’s list,
Naughty kids snuck up for presents that had an odd twist.
 
He recalled some notorious brats on his knee,
Whose desires foreshadowed the grown-ups they’d be:   
 
There was a young girl, her first name was Marjorie,
She demanded pet vipers for her menagerie.
 
Lindsey drawled for a Jekyll-Hyde, bobble head doll;
“Just a skunk,” Jim Jordan ordered with a snide snarl.
 
Mitch dreamed of an 8-Ball where all answers were “NO!”
A reply he took with him from those days long ago.
 
Someone pushed little Herschel to run, run and look
For an “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” pop-up coloring book.
 
“I need a chameleon,” Elise squealed chubby-faced.
Color-changing lizards perfectly suited her taste.
  
Joe humbly prayed for stamina and longevity,
Kamala waited her next—all smiles and levity.
 
While Eric was craving a large looking glass,
De Blas wasted his chance—late and hopeless, alas.
 
Andrew chose a fairy tale in which bold lying shows
A wooden boy exposed by the size of his nose.
 
Rudy could not understand the joy and sunshine
Santa brought to the youngsters waiting on line.
He jeered at their belief in this man dressed in red
And scoffed at the notion he flew in a sled.
Yet, when his turn came, Rudy craved a loudspeaker
And a billy club to bully those who were weaker.
 
Away from the crowd, a lonely boy viewed the scene;
Brooding in the back seat of his dad’s limousine.
He loathed the bell ringers just outside of the store,
Collecting coins from kind donors to help out the poor.
He had cruel disdain for social disparities,
But realized he could steal through self-dealing “charities,”
Like shortchanging workers, and rigging the tax game,
And conning saps into signing fat checks in his name.
 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Meanwhile, Mrs. Claus could be heard gently nagging,  
“Nicholas, get up now, this is no time for dragging.
We’re feeling despair, Dear, the most I can remember,
But that’s no excuse to stay home late in December.”
 
I wish this Eve’s poem could close with unrestrained cheer,
But don’t know for certain whether he’s coming this year.
 
For Santa’s, like Tinker Bell’s, light has grown dim.
Perhaps, the pure love of childhood will replenish him.
 
And his blue eyes will twinkle, and he’ll rev up his sleigh.
My heart says he’ll deliver on this Christmas Day.
 

 
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Wednesday, December 21, 2022

SHOW UP TODAY - Emergency Rally to Say NO to threats to Healthcare, Dec. 21, Unity machine shaky, Irony: Republican (Ariola) and Left Dems (Caban) on City Council Support Retirees, center/liberal Dems Waffle

Retiree Advocate/UFT and CROC - the multiple municipal union alliance, are planning another rally outside the UFT Delegate Assembly and the bigger the crowd the more impact. Don't expect thousands but dozens will be a good start because this fight is not over. 
 
The crux is the union leaders accept that they must share in the hurt and from withing a narrow framework where they don't see other options -- see below for a proposal to look at options. Yes healthcare costs are going off the chart. Mulgrew's response to put us in MedicareAdv and charge co-pays is weak -- that will not control costs. If we put all the people who currently work for the city and have in the past together, we have a powerful block to negotiate lower costs for care and drugs. And of course, the big enchilada to control costs in our state at least -- moving toward the NYS health act - single payer medicare for all, opposed by unions for numerous reasons, including it would take away their patronage and control of the welfare funds because they wouldn't be necessary.
 
Left Meets Right
A couple of tidbits. I called the office of my Rockaway Republican right wing city councilwoman and they said she backs us all the way. I called the office of Keith Powers, my local councilman in Manhattan midtown east and could not get an answer. So look at the document below to see that most or all Republicans signed on to support us. The influence of cops and fire. 
 
On the left, we've had great support from the hard left --- Charles Baron and Tiffany Caban. DSA people back our fight. So there's some interesting dynamics here.
 
The UFT may have some influence with the wishy washy libs. Are they threatening them with non-endorsements if they don't vote to change the Admin Code? We hear DC 37 is pulling that stuff. But at the last Ex bd meeting, Unity argued rigorously against him when Nick asked them to pull endorsements of those who oppose his reso (voted down) on moving Tier 6 people into Tier 4 - "we never want to lock ourselves in over one issue." Would we be shocked to see them turn around on this? No. But the UFT has been so bad at getting people elected, maybe it doesn't matter. 

Are Unity Cadre selling Mulgrewcare?
Mulgrew escalated a few weeks ago in panic when the city council people were leanign our way by bringing the battle to the rank and file with a Saturday night massacre letter threatening their own healthcare and blaming the retirees who sued. 
Some Unity people have been touching base with some of us to tell us there is a level of refusal to carry out Mulgrew's orders and when they are being carried out, without much enthusiasm. They have doubts and the arguments don't make sense and the misinformation from Mulgrew from the beginning has been rampant. And the quick response teams on the blogs and from Marianne have had an impact. How deep into the schools I can't tell.
 
Here's more details on the rally and march to DC37 and the MLC
Emergency Rally to Say NO to all threats being made to take 
away our traditional Medicare with premium-free Senior Care

Join us at UFT Headquarters -52 Broadway - as we greet Pres. Michael Mulgrew, other UFT union leaders and the delegates as they enter the Delegate Assembly.
Wednesday, Dec. 21st at 3:30pm

Speakers, Music and Chocolate
KEEP OUR EXCELLENT HEALTHCARE
NO PRIVATIZED MEDICARE DIS-ADVANTAGE PLAN     
NO ARBITRATOR DECISION
A contingent will march to DC37 & the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) Headquarters at 55 Water St. to deliver this message
 
A few comments gleaned from FB:
The Republicans and a couple of conservatives are saying health benefits are part of our constitutionally protected pension protections? Republicans hate public anything. Now, they don't want privatized Medicare. They are publicly opposing it. This is amazing.

But his conclusion: that the City Council must gut Administrative Law 12-126 in order to preserve health insurance choices would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. It is akin to the Army’s rationale during the Vietnam War that, “We had to destroy this village in order to save it.”
 
 





I'm not sure where this came from -

A Proposal for Protecting the Health-Care Benefits
of New York City Workers, Retirees, and Their Dependents
While Saving the City Money and Curtailing Runaway Health-Care Costs

BACKGROUND

Under Administrative Code 12-126, municipal workers, retirees, and their dependents are guaranteed premium-free health coverage up to the HIP-HMO benchmark, approximately $775/mth. This law has been in force since 1967. Retirees and active workers alike depend on this health-care coverage.

Health-care costs are paid by the City from two funds:

  •   The Retiree Health Benefits Trust (RHBT), used exclusively by the City to pay for retirees’ Medicare and Senior Care premiums. At the moment it is well funded, but health-care costs keep going up and the City’s obligation is becoming more expensive.

  •   The Health Insurance Stabilization Fund (HISF), used by the various unions to pay for active workers’ excess health insurance premiums as well as other benefits – dental, visual, podiatry, drug plans, etc – for both active and retired workers. In the past it has been treated as a slush fund to cover non-health-related costs, most notably in 2014, when $1 billion was withdrawn from the fund to cover wage increases for active workers. Now the HISF is going broke. If this happens, there will be no money to pay for union members’ health benefits.

    This is the problem in a nutshell: In the long run, the City needs to limit the cost of its health-care obligation. In the short run, the unions need to have the HISF replenished.

    THE EASY BUT WRONG SOLUTION

    Shift the City’s 250,000 retirees and their dependents out of traditional Medicare + Senior Care and into a Medicare Advantage plan. MA plans are entirely paid for by the federal government and are run by private health insurance companies. While MA plans supposedly provide the same coverage as traditional Medicare plus Medicare supplemental plans, the funds available to these plans are nearly 25% below what is currently available through Medicare + Senior Care. So MA plans rely heavily on limited provider networks and denial of care to keep their costs down and preserve their profits.

    The switch to Medicare Advantage would result in savings of $600 million per year to the City. This constitutes a mere 0.6% of the total City budget – a drop in the bucket for the City – but it would provide a quick way to replenish the depleted HISF. This appeared to be an easy solution, especially since the retirees lack representation and negotiating power.

    But the solution backfired. In 2021, when retirees discovered the forced switch to Medicare Advantage, they self-organized and fought back. Over 65,000 retirees opted out of the City’s MA plan even though opting out meant they would have to pay the Senior Care premium, roughly $200/mth. The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees raised enough money from thousands of pensioners and took the City to court. In 2022, the NYS Supreme Court declared that, under Administrative Code 12-126, the City could not charge retirees for their Senior Care. The City appealed – and lost. With Senior Care remaining premium-free, the plan to switch retirees to Medicare Advantage collapsed.

Now the City has opened a new assault on its retirees:

  1. It is attempting to get City Council to modify the language of Administrative Code 12-126 to allow for different “benchmarks” and “classes.” Such a change threatens not only retirees but also active workers. Instead of a guaranteed benefit, health-care coverage would be thrown open to negotiation. Different coverage, with much lower benchmarks, could be offered to different classes: teachers, clericals, uniformed actives, retirees, dependents, those with more or less seniority, etc.

  2. Mayor Adams and the mediator of City health benefits, Martin Scheinman, are threatening to impose a “nuclear option” – offering only one health-care option to retirees, namely, Medicare Advantage. Take it or leave it. All or nothing.

Bizarrely, the MLC and its two controlling unions, the UFT and DC37, are also urging all their members to contact City Council and demand that Administrative Code 12-126 be changed – even though such a change will jeopardize active workers’ health-care coverage. Why? Because the unions are desperate to replenish the HISF.

A BETTER SOLUTION

The switch to Medicare Advantage is a short-term solution. It does nothing to rein in health-care costs or the continued misuse of the HISF as a slush fund. It would substantially reduce the services available to retirees and cause significant hardship for any retiree who becomes sick and needs care.

A long-term solution is needed, one that holds down costs but does not jeopardize the health coverage of either retirees or active workers. The PSC has put forward a proposal that CROC supports: for the City to withhold $0.5 billion from the Retiree Health Benefits Trust for the next two years and instead use that money to shore up the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund. This would allow time to seriously evaluate effective cost-cutting solutions that the City and the MLC have themselves put on the table but have not actively investigated or pursued:

  1. Set up a municipal self-insurance plan for all actives, retirees, and their dependents. This would greatly reduce the high overhead costs charged by private insurance companies and give the City greater leverage with hospitals and other costly providers.

  2. Require lower costs from the private hospitals, which are currently charging exorbitant fees.

  3. Address the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs by consolidating union welfare fund drug plans and

    negotiating lower rates for all.

  4. Audit current insurance providers for potential fraud and duplication.

  5. Reduce money wasted from bad insurance management and inefficiencies.

Adopting a more rigorous approach to cost-cutting using these measures will result in long-term health-care savings and obviate the need to cut benefits to either active or retired workers.

 

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Tuesday, December 20, 2022

MulgrewCare Update: It's About Collusion and Civil Rights - Retiree Evie Rich Uncovers the Racism, Sexism and economic impact - Amsterdam News

Brewer correctly characterizes for-hire arbitrator Martin Scheinman’s December 15, filing in favor of the Medicare Advantage switcheroo a “non-binding report.” Pizzitola is more blunt, calling it “paid propaganda.”... Joe Maniscalco, Working-Bites

 The hits keep coming for Mulgrewcare with the above piece just out - see full article below. Then this dagger to the heart of Mulgrewcare by retiree Evie Rich (also reprinted below).

this thoughtful piece penned by Evie Rich
@NYAmNews thru a BIPOC lens about your Medicare privatization scheme & how it affects all workers, but especially workers of color is poignant & a clarion call. Reverse course, now. Workers UNITE! --- Educators of NYC
Key Takeaways from the sharply written article in The Amsterdam News:
  • we must see ourselves as members of a new army of ordinary people, determined to change the delivery of health care in New York City. Let’s take power away from those who “stay back” and move forward, seeking a permanent solution to the central issue of our time: access to free, comprehensive, affordable health care. 
  • Health care is not only a human right. Access to quality, comprehensive, affordable health care is imperative. We are an army of older residents engaged in this struggle and determined to win it — for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.
  • The stakes are high here. This is not simply a retiree issue. It affects large numbers of the city’s current work force and the larger population as well. A change in Section 12-126 of the Administrative Code opens the door to future changes in the quality and cost of active employees’ health insurance. 
  • a racist healthcare system that has always denied Black and brown people access to quality care. Passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 required the 20% co-pay as dictated by Republicans and Southern Democrats. Healthcare inadequacies are rooted in this system, which recognizes the financial limitations of some patients as well as limited access to preventive care. Too many people of color are underinsured or uninsured.  
  • Thirty-one of the 51 City Council members are people of color. They represent a NY City workforce of 305,000 that is predominantly female and minority. Eighteen percent of the workforce is eligible to retire now and 29% is eligible to retire in five years. Assessing that workforce, 58% of the men and only 36% of the women are in the top income bracket of $70,000 or more. Among retirees, the disparity in income is probably greater. The point here is that they are mostly white. 
  •  One in four African-American families has a net worth of zero! Imposition of the Medicare Advantage Plan would create a two-tiered healthcare apparatus dominated by women and low-income families. In a forced transfer to a Medicare Advantage Plus program, Latinx and African Americans will be denied the care we need.
 
At the most recent Retiree Chapter Meeting, I was on zoom and heard a retired para and secretary point out they don't have the option to opt out because their pensions are so low. These were not people in the activist wing of the retiees. A year ago I was prepared to spend $4500 a year to keep my current Medicare and Seniorcare because I could afford it. The court case killed that by declaring I could not be charged. Mulgrew wants to change the admin code so I and others of economic means can do so. One of the recent outrages from Unity hacks was Lyn Winderbaum saying she likes her Medicare and wants to pay to keep it. Marianne took her down for that, pointing out the inequities. I know retirees before me with pretty low pensions. So, now I am opposed to that option because I have come to realize just how unfair it is for so many people who cannot afford to do what I can.  

You can demonstrate your unhappiness with Mulgrew and Unity by coming to 52 Broadway tomorrow - Wednesday at 3:30 to show your displeasure.
 

And just out on Work-Bites:

Medicare Advantage Is a National Scandal - How Thick Could New York City’s Information Bubble Be?

https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/1n72juz2psj2e6v48d80bgwyati58c?fbclid=IwAR1yo5uAUf0jpWL723sE2H3PfUvGn-rsymJaC3lr0pWhrF2hwPdFX1p5x5c

Collusion.

That’s what the campaign by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] to push municipal retirees into a privatized for-profit Medicare Advantage healthcare program looks like to the many thousands who’ve spent more than a year trying to stop the plan.

What else can a rational human being conclude other than collusion against municipal retirees?

Medicare Advantage is one of the filthiest scandals in America today with lawmakers in Congress calling for the program’s nationwide abolition. And yet, the heads of the biggest city in the country are running around insisting Medicare Advantage is a good deal for retirees.

Really?

How thick would that bubble have to be to keep all that information out?

Work-Bites has already reported on some of the mounting evidence against privatized, for-profit Medicare Advantage plans and the delays, denials and deaths that come with them.

Here’s a little recap: earlier this month, retired Delaware State Senator Karen Peterson told us how “your healthcare can really go off the rails” with Medicare Advantage.

Nevertheless, the powerbrokers in Peterson’s state, as here in NYC, tried to sell municipal retirees on Medicare Advantage, insisting it was “just as good” as what they already had — “only better.”

Turns out, the Medicare Advantage contract Delaware signed with a private healthcare insurance company in September, actually contained 2,030 pre-authorizations — 340 pre-authorizations for medications — and 1,690 pre-authorizations for procedures.

Few things concern dedicated municipal retirees more than suddenly not being able to see their doctor.

A recently-released report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance critical of Medicare Advantage chicanery found instances of “provider network confusion” across 10 states where the beneficiary was “switched into a new plan and was unaware that their current doctors were not covered under their new plan’s network until they began to use the new plan.”

Gale Brewer, former Manhattan Borough President and current City Council Member representing the Upper West Side, doesn’t seem to have any problem piercing any sort of Medicare Advantage information bubble.

“The city has offered various Medicare Advantage plans for years,” Brewer said in a stamens this week, “but few retirees choose them because they are demonstrably worse than Senior Care.”

She goes on to say, “Medicare advantage plans give private insurance companies the power to overrule primary care physicians — and to say which procedures will be permitted,” she added. “Many retirees have health care issues and work very hard to stay healthy. Keeping their current insurance plan, called Senior Care, is critical in retaining access to their doctors and ensuring continuity of care.”

Gale Brewer gets it.

WHY AREN’T THEY TALKING WITH RETIREES?

That awareness has prompted Brewer to urge all parties involved to “sit down together and work this out.”

Marianne Pizzitola, president of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Fire Department EMS Retirees Association, has spent months calling for a sit-down with MLC heads Michael Mulgrew, Harry Garrido and Harry Nespoli.

Instead of taking her up on the offer, however, the trio, along wih Mayor Eric Adams — the former Medicare Advantage critic who used to call the program a “bait and switch” — have been pushing pell-mell to privatize the healthcare for tens of thousands of retired trade unionists — raging in the courts, issuing ultimatums, leaning on New York City Council members to tear up part of the City Administrative Code and implementing extra health costs.

Again, all at the precise moment Medicare Advantage plans are being exposed as predatory money grabs and raked across the coals from coast-to-coast.

Brewer correctly characterizes for-hire arbitrator Martin Scheinman’s December 15, filing in favor of the Medicare Advantage switcheroo a “non-binding report.”

Pizzitola is more blunt, calling it “paid propaganda.”

”The December 15th Scheinman report is not a “ruling”, it’s an opinion,” Pizzitola said in a statement released this week. “It’s paid propaganda and they’re hoping the city council falls for it. It is not a decision, it is not a ruling, it is not an award…and yet everyone fell for the biggest play in history…a paid opinion piece!”

Municipal retiree groups have already identified at least $300 million in savings to the City of New York — and none of it necessitates pushing them into a disastrous for-profit Medicare Advantage plan that progressive lawmakers in D.C. say ought to be abolished.

“OMB knows about some of these savings options, and has not implemented them,” Pizzitola says. “Nor have they informed the city council they exist. OMB was unaware of others we suggested in a recent meeting! Which is worse? And yet they told the Mayor’s office there is only one path forward! How can the mayor or the council make a decision if they are not being properly informed by OMB?”

Those leading the charge for Medicare Advantage are some of the most powerful people in the City of New York today. Elderly Municipal retirees are among the weakest and most vulnerable. But they are all hard-working trade unionists who’ve spent their entire working careers in education, the Fire Department, building trades, law enforcement — you name it. Corporate-owned, anti-labor media outlets in this town, as they did in Delaware, are trying to dismiss them all as a small group of crotchety old cranks. We should all remember that and consumer our media accordingly.

New York City municipal retirees certainly remember the 2014 pact between former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration and UFT President Michael Mulgrew — the faustian deal that allowed $1.3 million from the city’s Health Stabilization Fund to be used to cover needed raises following a decade of austerity under billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

They’ve connected all the dots and refuse to be steamrolled by anyone. They simply can’t afford to pretend to live in a Medicare Advantage information bubble. And neither can any of the “retirees in training” following right after them.

 

Here's the full Amsterdam News piece.

Time to Stand Up and Go Tell It on the Mountain! 

by Evie Rich

If you’re white, you’re right;

If you’re brown, stick around;

If you’re black, stay back!

Read more »
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