Municipal retirees bash city's Medicare Advantage plan

Laura Genovese was, in her words, getting “worked up.” 

Speaking at a town hall event hosted by downtown Manhattan Council Member Christopher Marte last week, the former Department of Education secretary said she was infuriated by the lack of support for municipal retirees’ blanket opposition to city officials' sustained effort to switch the retirees to a privately administered, for-profit health plan. 

Genovese said she was particularly baffled that progressive lawmakers, notably Zohran Mamdani, and their counterparts in the City Council had not publicly denounced the so-far unsuccessful plan to move roughly 250,000 former city workers to a Medicare Advantage plan. 

“What does that show, really? And we're talking about 9/11 survivors and responders,” she said at last Thursday's event, which was attended by about 50 people at the Manny Cantor Center on the Lower East Side. 

To her further dismay, she noted that Mamdani placed second on District Council 37’s list of ranked-choice endorsements. The city’s largest public-sector union and its executive director, Henry Garrido, have been vocal supporters of the proposed switch. 

Genovese, who retired from city service in 2021 after 23 years as a municipal employee, was also critical of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, also a mayoral candidate, for not advocating on behalf of the retirees. Adams, who wields considerable influence in setting the Council’s agenda, has resisted efforts to calendar legislation that would preserve the retirees' current no-fee traditional Medicare and supplemental insurance, including a Marte bill.

“I've seen such a lack of concern from City Council members. I mean, we don't even have transparency,” Genovese said, adding that she was incredulous at union endorsements of the Council speaker, including that of DC 37, which ranked her first.

“They didn't want a hearing on our bills” she said of the Council following the conclusion of the town hall. “We are being pitted against actives,” Genovese added, alluding to current city employees. 

Marte, who is running for reelection to his downtown Manhattan Council seat, had earlier said as much, opening the event by rebuffing the city’s contention that switching the retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan was fiscally necessary. “Active employees are being told that if retirees aren't put on Medicare Advantage, then the unions will have to start charging high premiums for healthcare visits,” he said. 

Marte said Mayor Eric Adams and some municipal unions are in effect creating a breach between current city employees and those who have retired by “telling you that one group's healthcare has to be cut to support the other's healthcare.”

He characterized as “misleading” unions’ claims to their active members that they will be paying an extra $1,500 a year for their benefits if the switch doesn't go through. “The unions wouldn't have to charge more money for healthcare if the city funded the stabilization fund,” said Marte, referring to a jointly city- and union-managed Health Insurance Premium Stabilization Fund, which props up municipal unions’ health and welfare-fund benefits.  City officials have said the resulting savings from shifting to Medicare Advantage plan would replenish the fund, which is nearly dry.

“But Mayor Adams and Speaker Adrienne Adams have not wanted to find an alternative funding source. They put all their eggs in one basket and that's the Medicare Advantage plan,” the Council member added. 

About 50 retired and current city employees attended the town hall meeting hosted by downtown Manhattan City Council Member Christopher Marte.

Richard Khavkine/The Chief

‘Undemocratic and opaque’

Marte hosted the town hall just days after city officials announced that they were negotiating a cost-saving health benefit plan with two insurance companies they said would allow city employees to see more doctors, specialists and other clinicians than do their current plans.

The proposal, which would be jointly administered by EmblemHealth and UnitedHealthcare, would cover about 750,000 employees, pre-Medicare retirees and their dependents, or 75 percent of the city’s workforce and their families. It, too, has the support of large municipal unions, including DC 37 and the United Federation of Teachers. 

Apart from that, he noted that Medicare Advantage plans have been widely criticized as inferior to traditional, government-administered Medicare, echoing arguments made during several court proceedings on the matter, all of them so far favoring the retirees.  

Marianne Pizzitola, the president of the Organization of Public Service Retirees, which is leading the opposition to the proposed switch, explained that despite some unions’ contentions to the contrary, unions cannot bargain on behalf of retirees, on the issue of health benefits or other matters. 

“We are not at that table. We are not in the room. We don't have a say on that conversation,” she said of talks between city officials and the Municipal Labor Committee regarding the proposed shift, which got underway in earnest during the de Blasio administration. 

As she has on numerous occasions, Pizzitola said the switch would break long-ago and perennial promises made to city workers. “We kept our end of the deal. They said, ‘come work for the city. You’ll never get rich. But when you retire, as in a form of deferred compensation’” municipal retirees will retain their premium-free Medicare and supplemental insurance. 

“We all know those words,” she said as several in attendance nodded in recognition. 

Another panelist, Neal Frumkin, the DC 37 Retirees Association’s former vice-president for interunion relations, also chided union leaders for intimating that unions can essentially bargain on behalf of retirees. 

“We were not privy to what went on in terms of these negotiations that affected more than 50,000 city employees who were represented by DC 37 retirees,” he said of the initial talks. Frumkin said attempts to speak with Garrido, who is also the MLC’s co-chair, and MLC Chair Harry Nespoli about the proposed switch were rebuffed. 

“This is a very undemocratic and very opaque process,” he said. 

Kyle Simmons, the president of Local 924, a DC 37 local representing city laborers, said the city’s plan to cut expenses by introducing Medicare Advantage for its retirees was misguided since it would amount to just a temporary fix. “What they're trying to do is not going to solve the issue. It's just like a regular Band-Aid and it's going to be pulled off because this is a national issue, not just a local issue,” Simmons said of escalating healthcare costs. 

If the city’s plan is instituted, he said, it would only serve to diminish services. “I think it's a slope that you don't really want to go down. Once you open up certain doors, it's hard to close,” Simmons said. “Let the retirees enjoy what they were promised. They're not asking for anything more.” 

richardk@thechiefleader.com