NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola [l] and fellow retirees and supporters rally with Council Member Chris Marte [c] at City Hall park in support of Intro. 1096 this past October. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Pending New York City Council legislation aimed at stopping embattled Mayor Eric Adams from stripping municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare health insurance benefits has picked up added traction and three new cosponsors.
Council Members Shahana Hanif [D-39th District] and Mercedes Narcisse [D-46th District] both signed onto Intro. 1096 last week, despite DC37 Executive Director Henry Garrido’s ongoing campaign of fear and intimidation to scare off support for the bill. Council Member Gale Brewer [D-6th District] also added her name to the bill as Work-Bites was going to press.
Council Member Hanif alluded to pressure from Garrido and DC37 when announcing her support for Intro. 1096—legislation sponsored by fellow Council Member Christopher Marte [D-1st District] which, if passed, would prevent the mayor or any of his successors from taking away the Medicare and Medigap coverage retirees had up until December 31, 2021.
“I am deeply grateful to the hundreds of municipal retirees in my district who have shared how important this bill is to their families,” Council Member Hanif said in a statement released on Thursday, Feb. 21. “I appreciate the patience that they’ve demonstrated as I’ve done my due diligence regarding the bill text. While stakeholders I respect have raised legal concerns that warranted deeper research, ultimately I must stand with my constituents whose health is being put at risk.”
Council Member Hanif further acknowledged the very real harm profit-driven Medicare Advantage plans have been shown to inflict on recipients overall.
“Across the country, privatized Medicare Advantage plans have raised costs and worsened care for seniors," she said. "It’s inconceivable that Mayor Adams is trying to strip our city’s municipal retirees of their current health insurance and force them onto bad plans.”
It may not seem that inconceivable, however, considering how nicely the five-year Medicare Advantage contract Mayor Adams signed with Aetna in 2023 fits in with Donald Trump’s Project 2025 plan for the demise of Traditional Medicare.
As Work-Bites’ Steve Wishnia pointed out last summer, “If Project 2025—the blueprint for a second Donald Trump administration drawn up by the Heritage Foundation think tank—gets the green light, people signing up for Medicare would be automatically put into a profit-driven 'Medicare Advantage’ health insurance plan unless they made a special effort to sign up for regular, non-privatized Medicare coverage.”
Council Member Narcisse also referenced Mayor Adams’ ongoing push for Medicare Advantage when announcing her support for Intro. 1096 on Thursday.
“Given the ongoing issues surrounding Mayor Adams, it's clear that a fair resolution for our retirees is unlikely to be reached through an agreement between the administration and retirees alone, as I had long hoped,” she said. “Additionally, proposed federal Medicaid cuts threaten the healthcare our retirees depend on, making it even more urgent to act now. That's why l'm co-sponsoring Int. 1096-2024, a bill that will ensure retirees continue to receive the healthcare coverage they earned.”
Council Member Hanif also called the entire Medicare Advantage push a “shameful maneuver” and urged Mayor Adams, who famously called the scheme a “bait and switch” while running for office, to finally abandon it.
“Time and time again, the retirees have won in court,” Council Member Hanif said. “I urge the Adams Administration to end this ordeal, support the New Yorkers who helped build our city, and pass Intro. 1096 into law.”
The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] has scored nearly a dozen victories in court barring the mayor from pushing municipal retirees into Medicare Advantage—but Hizzoner keeps appealing the decisions.
As mayor, Eric Adams has steadfastly insisted the Medicare Advantage push “negotiated closely with and supported by the Municipal Labor Committee” would “improve upon retirees’ current plans and save $600 million annually.”
When reached for comment this week, however, a spokesperson told Work-Bites that the Adams administration will “review the bill.”
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [D-28th District] has also stood in the way of advancing retiree legislation, claiming that the Medicare Advantage push is a legal issue that must ultimately be left to the courts to decide. According to published reports, Garrido is now actively urging the Speaker to run for mayor with the full might of his union’s support behind her.
“The healthcare of city retirees and workers is of paramount importance and this issue has been in litigation for too long” Speaker Adams Work-Bites in an email on Monday. “The mayoral administration must work with labor and retirees to reach a resolution that all parties deserve and avoids more litigation that drags this conflict out further. We appreciate the advocacy of all those who continue to advocate and make their views heard regarding healthcare.”
But that sounds like a lot empty political speak to municipal retirees who have spent the last four years fighting to retain the Traditional Medicare coverage they earned after decades on the job.
“If healthcare was of paramount importance to the speaker like she says it is, she wouldn’t have been jerking us around for the last four years,” retired EMS worker and NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola told Work-Bites on Monday. “She would’ve actually passed the bill last year instead of threatening elected leaders and making retirees fight to defend themselves for the last two years causing anxiety and fear. She can still make sure that 1096 gets passed sooner rather than later before we’re all dead if she really means it. If not, we know she’s full of it.”
Intro. 1096 now has 12 cosponsors in the New York City Council—often touted as being women-led and the most progressive New York City Council to date. However, those still sitting on the fence continue to feel pressure from Garrido and the rest of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] to remain on the sidelines.
City Council Member Erik Bottcher [D-3rd District] felt Garrido’s ire earlier this month not long after he signed onto the retiree bill.
“Perhaps the worst part of the bill,” Garrido claimed in a Feb. 3 missive to union members, “is that it does nothing to identify any source of funding for the projected $600 million dollar loss if Intro 1096 is passed. We need your help in protecting our right to collectively bargain healthcare and future terms and conditions of employment, Council Member Erik Bottcher needs to hear from YOU.”
That “$600 million” sum that continues to be tossed around is specious figure propagated by Adams administration to help justify herding 250,000 municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan run by Aetna.
In 2021, Jonathan Rosenberg, Director of Budget Review at the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO), testified at a City Council Civil Service and Labor Committee hearing that “shifting” municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan “provides the city with no actual budgetary savings.”
In 2023, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander told constituents any estimated “savings” achieved by herding retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan would be far less than that supposed $600 million—and ultimately declined to register the contract Mayor Adams signed with Aetna.
“It disgusts me to recognize that [Speaker Adams] still hasn’t read our emails because she apparently doesn’t know we are no longer in unions, they don’t bargain for us, and our bill does not impact them,” Pizzitola added. “It is strictly for current retirees. There is no funding needed as the bill is funded under 12–126 because it’s been funded for 60 years. We aren’t asking for anything new, just for our former unions not to rob us blind to finance themselves.”
Continuing to sit out the Medicare Advantage fight is already having real world consequences for those hoping for retiree support at the polls.
Council Member Hanif announced her support for Intro. 1096 on the same day NYCOPSR endorsed her challenger, Maya Kornberg.
“Promises made should be promises kept,” Kornberg Tweeted out last Thursday. “I'm proud to stand with @nycretirees in their fight to keep the healthcare they were promised & earned through decades of public service on behalf of New Yorkers. Honored to be endorsed by the NYC Organization of Public Sector Retirees!”
Other NYCOPSR endorsements are forthcoming.
The New York City Democratic Socialists of America, meanwhile, endorsed both Council Member Tiffany Cabán [D-] and Council Member Alexa Avilés for re-election, earlier this month.
“At a time when the president and our own mayor are threatening the public institutions that faithfully serve our city’s working class, a vote for Alexa or Tiffany is a vote for New York City that allows all New Yorkers to thrive, not just those at the very top,” NYC-DSA Co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo said in a statement.
Curiously, or a further sign of Garrido’s influence, neither of those Democratic Socialist-endorsed council members has yet signed onto to legislation created to protect retirees and their Traditional Medicare benefits from profit-driven health insurance.
Work-Bites has made repeated unsuccessful attempts to reach both Council Members Cabán and Avilés, as well as DSA-NYC for comment on this story. We look forward to the opportunity to learn their views on Intro. 1096 in the very near future.
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