Illogical

To the editor:

I'm glad UFT President Michael Mulgrew withdrew his support for forcing city retirees from real Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan. But I believe that this is not because he's had problems negotiating the implementation with the city, but because his slate of retirees just lost an election to an opposition slate. Mulgrew probably fears losing his next bid for re-election.

Let's say Star Trek's Mr. Spock was told that a private health plan which requires an insurance company to make a profit would offer more coverage for less money than Medicare. Let's say he was also told that the city had no alternative to this program to save $600 million that could not be found elsewhere in a $112 billion budget. His reply would be, "That's not logical."

As a retired transit worker, I've been forced into a Medicare Advantage plan because it was part of a contract approved by current transit workers. Luckily, I haven't had a problem yet. But a fellow retiree told me he already has had problems because some procedures he needed had to first be approved by the insurance company and because some of his doctors don't accept Medicare Advantage.

Also, Mayor Eric Adams is not saving the city any money, but rather costing us money, by continuing to pay lawyers for more appeals every time a court rules against this program.

Finally, a recent opinion piece by the Rev. Al Sharpton touted Adams' mayoral accomplishments and claimed he was being unfairly criticized because he's Black. If Adams continues to push for Medicare Advantage, that could cost him re-election. His loss won't be for anything else.

Richard Warren