NYC Retirees Call On Incoming Speaker to Sign Onto Legislation Protecting Their Health Care—Will She?
NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams blocked passage of Intro. 1096— legislation protecting municipal retirees from a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan. Will incoming New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin be any different?
By Joe Maniscalco
Outgoing New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [D-28th District] did everything she possibly could to bottle up legislation protecting municipal retirees fighting the privatization of their traditional Medicare benefits—but will City Council Member Julie Menin be any different as the new Speaker?
Council Member Menin [D-5th District] reportedly garnered the necessary number of votes to secure the Speakership last month in the backroom wheeling-and-dealing that defines machine party politics in New York City.
A debate between the five candidates previously vying to become the next Speaker, including Menin, Council Members Crystal Hudson, Amanda Farías, Selena Brooks-Powers, and Chris Marte was slated to be held at the New York Law School on Wednesday, Dec. 10. That event has since been downgraded to a “briefing” from Council Member Menin.
Members of the New York City Council won’t actually vote for the new Speaker until Jan. 7.
Work-Bites has made repeated attempts to reach Council Member Menin to talk about her stance on Intro. 1096, along with several other major bills vital to New Yorkers, as well as NYCHA’s ongoing efforts to force elderly residents out of their homes and demolish the Fulton & Elliott-Chelsea Houses on Manhattan’s west side.
But we were told that she’s too busy this week.
Mayor Eric Adams abandoned the Medicare Advantage push back in June after sustained opposition from New York City municipal retirees who continue to insist their former unions do not have the right to sign away their traditional Medicare and Medigap benefits they earned after decades on the job.
Those same retirees are now being hit with crippling co-pays and remain fearful about the future of their health care coverage regardless of Mayor Adams’ decision to abandon the Medicare Advantage push or Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s stated opposition to privatization.
Retirees maintain that passing Intro. 1096 is vitally necessary. The bill stipulates that the City of New York “must offer Medicare-eligible City retirees and their Medicare-eligible dependents 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.”
Just 19 City Council Members have signed onto the measure, however, many still fearing reprisals from District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido and the other heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] who originally spearheaded the Medicare Advantage push as part of a cost-saving deal initially hatched during the de Blasio administration a decade ago.
The United Federation of Teachers, under the leadership of President Michael Mulgrew, withdrew its support of the Medicare Advantage push last year after retirees opposed to the privatization scheme won control of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter. The UFT still opposes Intro. 1096 because it says the bill could potentially interfere with future contract negotiations. But exactly how the union will not say.
Speaker Adams consistently sidestepped the future of retiree healthcare throughout her tenure saying the issue was being litigated in the courts, while treating Intro. 1096 and predecessor retiree bills like Kryptonite inside the New York City Council.
“If the Council and the Council leadership decided to move on this legislation then that will happen,” Civil Service and Labor Committee Chair Carmen De La Rosa [D-10th District] told Work-Bites back in 2023. “But right now, what I've been told is that this is a matter that is being litigated through the Court of Appeals.”
Former Council Member Charles Barron, sponsor of Intro. 1096’s predecessor bill at the time, called Council Member De La Rosa’s refusal to allow a hearing on the measure “absurd” and “ridiculous.”
“[Council Member De La Rosa] does not need the approval of the Speaker,” Barron told Work-Bites. “This is a violation of democracy. It's a violation of our Council rules. It's a violation of the policies of the New York City Council.”
On Monday, a spokesperson for Council Member Menin reiterated her previously stated support for “high-quality healthcare to city workers, their dependents, and retirees.” But also said that the “most effective way to continue providing quality care is to find the $600 million necessary to keep retirees on their current plan through the budget. Specifically, the funding could be allocated by utilizing her legislation that created the landmark Office of Healthcare Accountability.”
“The unions tried to force us into Medicare Advantage and then pay a premium for the first time in history to finance their raises that we don’t benefit from. They assessed co-pays on us that are killing many retirees financially and preventing them from seeking the medical care they need because they can’t afford it.”
Mayor Adams’ administration routinely touted $600 million in savings that would supposedly result after pushing municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan, although City Comptroller Brad Lander disputed the figure.
“Skyrocketing health care costs pose huge challenges for the city as we strive to continue to provide high-quality health care without premiums, a rarity among employers nationwide,” a City Hall spokesperson told Work-Bites in August, 2024. “The Medicare Advantage plan is part of a comprehensive approach to tackle this challenge, and it includes a procurement for a new plan covering both active and pre-Medicare retirees, which is intended to save over $1 billion per year.”
State Supreme Court Lyle Frank on Dec. 4 denied efforts to block implementation of the NYC Employees PPO Plan covering active workers, retirees not yet eligible for Medicare, and their dependents. [See our coverage here].
Mayor Adams signed a Medicare Advantage pact with Aetna on March 30, 2023, and that contract would have run for more than five years had the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] not gone to court and successfully blocked its implementation.
“The administrative code 12–126 requires the City to pay up to the HIP HMO rate for every employee retiree and their dependents,” NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola told Work-Bites this week. “The unions tried to force us into Medicare Advantage and then pay a premium for the first time in history to finance their raises that we don’t benefit from. They assessed co-pays on us that are killing many retirees financially and preventing them from seeking the medical care they need because they can’t afford it.”
The New York City Council, Pizzitola added, “has to wake up to this.”
“The unions don’t represent us,” she said, “but they surely stole what was allocated to us for them. And the Council has an obligation to protect that because we’re not in those unions.”
Stu Eber, president of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations [COMRO], said that New York City municipal retirees are tired of being “held hostage to the deBlasio Administration’s failed PEG [Program to Eliminate the Gap],” and that now is the time to “turn the corner and prevent this fiasco from ever happening again.”
“We need the Speaker-elect to sign on as a sponsor to Intro 1096 and its successor in 2026, and ensure a committee hearing is scheduled early next year with a vote by the full Council at the following meeting,” Eber told Work-Bites on Monday.
Council Member Chris Marte [D-1st District] is Intro. 1096’s sponsor. He had hopes of succeeding Adrienne Adams as Speaker, running on a 26-point platform to reform the New York City Council.
“I want to reform the City Council to make sure there is transparency, actual democracy and accountability,” Council Member Marte told Work-Bites in September. “Right now, when you look at the Speaker position it’s one person making all the decisions.”
This week, Council Member Marte said he is now looking forward to working with incoming Speaker Menin to “implement much of the reforms that were the centerpiece of my own campaign, especially not having a carrot-and-stick style of governing and amending the ‘first in time’ rule.’ This will bring much needed transparency and democracy to the Council.”
The ‘first in time’ rule refers to the process of clearly identifying City Council Members when they introduce new bills.
In addition to Intro. 1096, Council Member Marte is also sponsor of Intro. 615— or the “No More 24” bill. That bill, which outgoing Speaker Adrienne Adams also opposed, seeks to end the mandatory 24-hour shifts in the home care industry that supporters of the mostly older women of color doing the job call nothing more than “modern day slavery.”
Council Member Menin is one of 16 cosponsors of the “No More 24” bill. A spokesperson for Council Member Marte further told Work-Bites this week that their office is excited to work with the incoming Speaker to “finally end the 24-hour workday and bring justice to these women that have sacrificed their health and livelihoods to care for our most vulnerable.”
“It’s high time to end the 24-hour workday once and for all,” the spokesperson added. “We also remain committed to ensuring that our city’s retirees keep the healthcare they are rightfully entitled to and look forward to working with the incoming Speaker and mayoral administration to achieve just that.”