Judge halts city’s planned Medicare switch for municipal retirees

Adams administration intends to appeal decision

A Manhattan State Supreme Court justice has blocked the Adams administration’s plan to switch about 250,000 municipal retirees and their dependents into a cost-saving, for-profit health-care plan, handing a coalition of retired city workers a significant victory in their furious bid to keep their traditional Medicare coverage.

In a one-page decision and order issued Friday, Justice Lyle Frank barred the city from going forward with its plan for the same reasons that led him to issue a preliminary injunction last month that put the administration’s effort on hold. The Adams administration had intended to shift the retirees to a plan administered by managed-care company Aetna by Sept. 1.