NYC Retirees Need Intro. 1096—Is Mamdani Listening?
Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani addresses supporters ahead of the massive “No Kings” protest in June. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
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By Joe Maniscalco
Branded as Enemy Number One by an entire political establishment who’d like to cancel him as an existential threat to the high-holy church of American capitalism, while also fending off wild claims of being anti-cop, anti-Semetic, anti-Hindu, you name it—mayoral frontrunner Member Zohran Mamdani does have a lot on his plate.
But municipal retirees who still insist they need the New York City Council to pass Intro. 1096 to make it illegal for current Mayor Eric Adams—or any other mayor after him—to diminish the Traditional Medicare and MediGap healthcare benefits they earned prior to Dec. 31, 2021, have more on their plates than NYS Assembly Member Mamdani has on his.
A lot more.
For them passing Intro. 1096 could be the difference between life and death. Despite Mayor Eric Adams announcing last month that he is abandoning the Medicare Advantage push—at least for now—New York City retirees who entered civil service on the promise of having a pension and worry-free healthcare in retirement still go to bed at night wondering how much longer they’ll have the coverage they need.
They are sick. Some of them were sick before the Medicare Advantage fight even started. Others have gotten sick in the middle of the battle. They need the comprehensive healthcare they worked for—not Medicare Advantage’s AI-generated hoops and stacks of prior authorizations that make even their own doctors’ heads spin.
Last month, however, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled retirees failed to show such a “clear and unambiguous promise” to worry-free healthcare ever existed. Mayor Adams applauded the decision calling it “an important precedent that will allow the city to modify plans in response to evolving conditions.”
Talk like that scares the bejeezus out of many retirees and erases any solace they might have taken in the mayor’s announcement in June that he is, at long last, dropping the Medicare Advantage push.
“At any moment, this Mayor or a future Mayor can reverse positions and try again to put retirees on Medicare Advantage or an equally dangerous plan.”
"While the Mayor’s reversal on Medicare Advantage is a huge victory for city retirees, we have to codify this position as soon as possible,” Council Member Chris Marte told Work-Bites this week. “At any moment, this Mayor or a future Mayor can reverse positions and try again to put retirees on Medicare Advantage or an equally dangerous plan.”
Council Member Marte [D-1st District] sponsored Intro. 1096 last fall—but the measure still only has 18 cosponsors at the time of this writing.
And that’s in large part because both Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [D-28th District] continue to use their considerable power to keep it buried.
When pressed about their stances on Intro. 1096 following the decision to abandon the Medicare Advantage push—the mayor’s office said it will “have more to say on Intro. 1096 once City Council has made a decision on the bill.” But Speaker Adams’ office says “the responsibility of healthcare decisions for municipal employees and retirees lies with the mayoral administration.”
NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola gets a hug from City Council Member Chris Marte last fall at a rally for Intro. 1096 held in City Hall Park.
That’s the level of leadership New York City municipal retirees literally fighting for their lives are dependent upon. Many of them are looking to Mamdani to provide the bold and unequivocal leadership they need to protect their healthcare in the immediate future.
So far, however, they’re not getting it. Mamdani has forcefully stated his opposition to Medicare Advantage, but he has been virtually mum on Intro. 1096. Work-Bites has made repeated attempts to reach Mamdani for comment on this story and his position on Intro. 1096, but those efforts have all been unsuccessful.
Last fall, Mamdani did talk to Work-Bites about Intro. 1096 when he said he supports the “spirit of the legislation,” but stopped short of endorsing it, saying instead that “as the next mayor it would not even be required given what my policies would be on the issue.”
For some New York City municipal retirees who have spent the last four years successfully beating back the Medicare Advantage push that’s enough, fingers crossed. For others, however, it’s really not.
“Mamdani wants to win,” 92-year-old New York City retiree and Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] member Evelyn Jones Rich told Work-Bites this week. “To do that he has to dodge the question of supporting 1096. I support 1096 without reservation. Mamdani is dodging other questions as well. This speaks to his character. Unfortunately, [Jim] Walden’s candidacy is not viable. I will vote for Mamdani and lead a vigorous civil disobedience movement if he lets us down!”
City Council Member Alexa Avilés rallies with municipal retirees outside the gates of City Hall in 2023.
The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR], under the leadership of retired EMS worker Marianne Pizzitola, backed independent mayoral candidate Jim Walden’s run for mayor in November.
Mamdani, who was District Council 37’s second choice for mayor behind Speaker Adrienne Adams in this year’s Democratic Party primary, was a no-show at NYCOPSR’s mayoral debate held in April, and has consistently ignored the organization’s requests to meet, according to Pizzitola.
“We see him as wanting the unions endorsements over our support and that shows he’s already owned,” NYCOPSR posted on X earlier this week. “The two largest unions sold off our earned & promised Medicare benefits & sacked us with copays for their funding streams. They told Zohran—support retirees & lose our endorsement.”
NYCOPSR Community Outreach and Organizing Coordinator Michelle Keller also told Work-Bites this week that she does not have “Mamdani fever” and that “all that glitters isn’t often gold.”
“The New York City Organizaiton of Public Service Retirees, like all other constituency groups in NYC, should not be chasing brother Mamdani—he should be chasing us,” Keller said. “The retirees of long service now in retirement have earned their dignity, respect, recognition, and the right of a conversation.”
Keller also called on Mamdani to sign onto sister legislation to 1096 still pending in the State Legislature—“and then put pressure on City Council to do their job legislatively to give us the freedom from being beholden to anyone—including himself [as mayor].”
“We have walked this dusty road before. We are not going back,” Keller added. "All voices must be reflected in change because if we cannot have the conversation with him now, no part of the [mayoral] win will bring us any closer together.”
Council Member Alexa Avilés [D-38th District] is one of the legislators who has stood up to District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido’s much-publicized wrath against Intro. 1096 and its supporters, and defiantly signed onto the bill. The East New York product and NYC Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed legislator told Work-Bites that her City Council colleagues are “caught in a little bit of inertia” regarding Intro. 1096 and “just caught responding to this awful [Trump] administration that is pummeling us on a daily basis.”
As far as Mamdani’s murky position on Intro. 1096, Council Member Avilés said, “I think right now they're probably just doing the best they can to steer the ship in very tumultuous waters.”