NYC Retirees Vow to Keep ‘Hounding’ Council Members to Pass Intro. 1096
New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola celebrates Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to drop the Medicare Advantage push—and urges passage of Intro. 1096. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Despite Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement on Friday that he is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push, New York City municipal retirees will continue to “hound” uncommitted City Council members until they finally sign onto legislation protecting the Traditional Medicare and MediGap benefits retirees earned on the job.
Intro. 1096—Council Member Chris Marte’s [D-1st District] bill ensuring that the City of New York continues to offer “at least one Medigap plan with benefits equivalent to or better than those available to City retirees and their dependents as of December 31, 2021”—now has 18 co-sponsors.
That’s up from the 16 cosponsors who were signed onto the bill at the start of the month. On June 4, Work-Bites reported that both Council Members Darlene Mealy [D-41st District] and Kamillah Hanks [D-49th District] had withdrawn their initial support for Intro. 1096.
This week, Council Member Hanks is back on the bill, along with new signatory Council Member David M. Carr [R-50th District]—bringing the total number of sponsors to 18. Every Republican member of the New York City Council has now signed onto Marte’s bill protecting retirees from being forced into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan. Most of the Democrats—including Speaker Adrienne Adams—have not.
CROC member Roberta Pikser calls out Mayor Eric Adams’ well-timed decision to drop the Medicare Advantage push as Council Member Chris Marte looks on.
“I would like to think of this as the beginning of the end…now, we simply need to get the legislation past that will guarantee this victory is a permanent one,” New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola told supporters at a triumphant celebration held at City Hall Park on Monday. “We need the undecided Council Members to help pass this legislation.”
Retirees who have successfully beaten back the Medicare Advantage push in the courts despite the New York State Court of Appeals ruling against them last week in the so-called “nuclear option” case, insist that Intro. 1096 has “languished” in the City Council without a hearing for far too long.
“We are eager for Adrienne Adams, the City Council Speaker, to stand with us in passing this legislation Intro. 1096, so that no retiree and no elected official will ever have to go through this again,” Pizzitola continued.
Mayor Adams left the door open for future mayors—possibly even himself—to try and force municipal retirees into Medicare Advantage at some future date when he announced on June 20 that although he is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push for now—he is still “grateful” to the New York State Court of Appeals for "recognizing" that the city has a "legal right to offer alternative health care coverage plans to retirees and for acknowledging that we must have flexibility to adapt our policies based on changing times.”
On June 18, the New York State Court of Appeals determined that retirees “[had] failed to establish the existence of a clear and unambiguous promise” — meaning that in their view the advice generations of New Yorkers got to “get a good city job” was really based on an illusion because the promise of worry-free health care was never based in fact.
Indeed, Mayor Adams called the decision, “an important precedent that will allow the city to modify plans in response to evolving conditions.”
Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee Member [CROC] Julie Schwartzberg openly questioned the timing of the mayor’s retreat on Medicare Advantage—and its earnestness.
“It’s very questionable about what’s going on and why he took this moment to do that when he didn’t give a crap about us for four years,” Schwartzberg told Work-Bites on Monday. “Does he really think he can get votes? Does he really think he can get elected?”
Fellow CROC member Roberta Pikser said it is now the job of municipal retirees to “hound the Council Members who refuse to support us by voting for [Intro.] 1096.”
New York City municipal retirees Lizette Colon (l) and Michelle Keller [r] celebrate Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to abandon Medicare Advantage.
“We must hound them until they actively work for us to maintain the health care we paid for all our working lives,” Pikser said. “However…we do owe a round of applause and laughter to the Mayor and Speaker Adams for their comedic skills—did they really think they can suddenly suck us in with their political talk? ‘We have decided not to move forward with the Medicare Advantage plan at this time?’ Really—and two minutes from now? Does he really think it can distract us? Our fight has frightened these most-recalcitrant politicians into wanting to look like they're on our side. So, we must thank the Mayor and the Speaker and those who now pretend to support us—thank you for giving us inspiration to fight even harder.”
Speaker Adams, District Council 37’s top pick in the June 24 Democratic Party primary for mayor, has steadfastly opposed advancing Intro. 1096 or even giving it a hearing. Work-Bites reached out to the Speaker’s office to learn how the Mayor’s decision to drop Medicare Advantage last week may have impacted her opposition to Intro. 1096—but that request for comment was denied.
The Mayor’s Office also failed to respond to requests for comment on this story.
Last week, the Speaker released a statement saying that the Mayor’s announcement “only reinforces our consistent position that responsibility for the healthcare decisions of municipal employees and retirees rests with the mayoral administration. The Speaker further stated that she is “heartened that our city and its retirees will no longer face continued uncertainty and can now move towards a solution.”
But retirees insist they do, in fact, continue to face uncertainly as long as Intro. 1096 continues to languish in the sub-basement of the New York City Council.
“If it’s a budget fight let’s have it,” Council Member Marte told Work-Bites on Monday. “We have it when we’re were facing defunding of our schools. We have it when we can’t fix our parks…our libraries. This should be a fight for the current budget for municipals workers—and we want the Speaker to visualize that fight as a budget fight. We welcome that—but not for the retirees.”
Fellow City Council Member Council Member Justin Brannan [D-4th District] blasted Mayor Adams for allowing municipal retirees to “twist in the wind” during his whole time in office.
“For the past three years, while the mayor has let the retirees twist in the wind, that money [for retiree health care] has been in the budget,” Council Member and NYC Comptroller candidate Brannan said. “And the last I checked the lights were still on in the City of New York. So, don’t tell me we have to balance the budget on the backs of retirees because we’re not gonna do it. Retirees were promised Traditional Medicare—and that’s what they need to enjoy until they’re five-thousand-years-old.”