‘Well, Isn’t That Rich?’ — Speaker Adams Says She Will Do the Opposite of Cuomo and ‘Protect’ NYC Retirees

NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has blocked every legislative effort to protect retiree healthcare from the Medicare Advantage push, but her campaign says she will “protect” retirees as mayor.

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By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams doesn’t think voters should believe Andrew Cuomo when he says he won’t try and push municipal retirees into a Medicare Advantage health insurance plan if he’s elected mayor this fall.

Okay, but why would anyone believe the Speaker when she says she will protect retirees as mayor?

“No one should believe Andrew Cuomo cares about retirees,” Adams campaign spokesperson Lupe Todd-Medina recently told Work-Bites. “He’s spent his career selling out public workers, starting with Tier 6. Adrienne Adams will do the opposite. As mayor, Adrienne will make protecting quality healthcare choices for retirees and city workers a top priority and bring everyone to the table to deliver a fair solution.”

New York City municipal retirees who’ve spent the last four years fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push have already made their choice. They want the Traditional Medicare and City-funded healthcare package they were promised when they began their civil service careers. They do not want any part of a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan that makes money delaying and denying care.

“Well, isn’t that rich?” Marianne Pizzitola, head of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees told Work-Bites in response to the statement from the Adams campaign. “Why should I believe Adrienne Adams would protect me as mayor when she hasn’t done it as Speaker? When she had the power for four years and did nothing but block retirees calls, meetings, bill hearings and threatened council members not to get on our last two bills?”

Speaker Adams has steadfastly opposed any legislative effort to preserve and protect the Traditional Medicare health insurance package municipal retirees earned after decades on the job, as well as blocked Civil Service and Labor Committee Chair Carmen De La Rosa [D-10th District] from even allowing retiree bills from getting a hearing.

Back from the dead: If elected mayor, ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo claims he won’t keep pushing New York City municipal retirees into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.

Cuomo, hoping to resurrect his trashed political career after resigning the governorship in 2021 amidst a spate of sexual harassment allegations and a growing movement to impeach him, wrote a letter to the New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees on April 14, pledging to “not push retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan” if elected mayor.

The ex-governor, who also spent his time in office closing and consolidating hospitals, going after Medicaid, and packing nursing homes with Covid-19 patients, was a conspicuous no-show at the mayoral debate the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees sponsored at the CUNY Grad Center on April 17. Other mayoral hopefuls who where also MIA included, current Mayor Eric Adams, New York Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie, and New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido publicly endorsed Speaker Adams’ mayoral bid a week later. The head of the largest municipal labor union in the city has been—and continues to be—one of the principal movers behind the Medicare Advantage push, notoriously threatening to pull his union’s support from any New York City Council member with the cahones to cross his will.

If Speaker Adams were to—as campaign spokesperson Todd-Media says—“do the opposite” of Cuomo and “make protecting quality healthcare choices for retirees and city workers a top priority,” she would most definitely be crossing Garrido who has endeavored to shut down, marginalize, and dismiss any and all challenges to the Medicare Advantage push.

Those efforts haven’t worked, however. New York City municipal retirees fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push have instead racked up 11 court decisions in their favor and kept the pressure on in the streets. They are expecting another court decision shortly. 

A frustrated MLC, meanwhile, is now suing the City of New York in a bid to avoid arbitration and having to cough up the $600 million in healthcare savings the unions said they would be able to provide after throwing municipal retirees under the bus and forcing them into Medicare Advantage.

District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido tried to slip by New York City municipal retirees protesting inside the union’s lobby last December.

Stu Eber, chair of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations, told Work-Bites that the lawsuit is just another victory for retired civil servants opposing the Medicare Advantage push. 

“This is clearly a victory for retirees,” Eber said in an email. “If the City was confident that they would win next month in the courts, they would not need to force the MLC into arbitration to recoup the cost savings of their failed PEG (Program to Eliminate the Gap).”

It’s now long past time, according to Eber and other retiree leaders, for  Mayor Adams, Garrido and the rest of the Medicare Advantage bunch to finally throw in the towel and look for other ways to save the City of New York some money.

“COMRO has said for the past four years that the Administration, Comptroller, MLC, City Council and retirees need to sit down at the same table to discuss the cost saving options that do not threaten the physical and financial health of in-service employees and retirees,” Eber said.