Uh-Oh…Garrido’s ‘COGE’ Role Raises Serious Concern for NYC Retirees

Acting MLC Chair and District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido spearheaded the failed campaign to strip New York City municipal retirees of their traditional Medicare benefits and push them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan. He continues to fight legislation protecting retiree healthcare. Photo/Joe Maniscalco

Editor’s Note: The following is an open letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly-created Commission on Government Efficiency about the role Acting MLC Chair and Medicare Advantage proponent Henry Garrido is playing on the commission and why that raises red flags for New York City Retirees.

As reported by the Chief, COGE invited Executive Director Ann Cheng to attend a future Municipal Labor Committee meeting to gather feedback from labor leaders. A June 10 letter from COGE stated that “We believe that true efficiency will be found by learning from the expertise and knowledge of our workforce.”

Your name is an unintended but unfortunate reminder of DOGE, the federal Department of Government Efficiency, that took a slash and burn approach, e.g. cutting essential Social Security Administration staffing.  Coupled with a federal proposal to make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option, COGE needs to reassure retirees that any efficiencies in the name of savings won’t harm them.

So it is ominous that the Mayor appointed Municipal Labor Committee Acting Chair Henry Garrido to serve on COGE.  His fingerprints are all over actions that run counter to optimization and savings. 

Mr. Garrido championed forcing retirees into Medicare Advantage. Studies have confirmed that MA plans cost taxpayers far more than traditional Medicare and delivers worse outcomes for patients.

Ironically, an impetus for the switch to Medicare Advantage was the insolvency of the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund, mismanaged by the Office of Labor Relations and the MLC.

Former Comptroller Brad Lander’s damning audit of the Fund found that they did not take adequate steps to improve the Fund’s position while using it as a piggy bank for inappropriate spending.

Henry Garrido can’t dodge responsibility for these missteps. And he has also misrepresented and lobbied against City Council and State bills intended to protect retiree health benefits.

Given the above, Ms. Cheng should ask pointed questions of MLC officers.

As of this writing, while reaching out to the MLC, COGE is following the Mayor’s lead in not seeking input from the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees who could share their own experiences, including the financial pain of co-pays imposed in the name of savings. 

Please don’t be swayed by voices that marginalize NYCOPSR and parrot falsehoods about proposed legislation.

Listen to retirees who gave decades of service to our great City.

Respectfully, 

Harry Weiner

Member

New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees

Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations