Legislation to preserve retiree healthcare reintroduced

Third push for bill

A bill that would preserve city retirees’ current healthcare benefits was reintroduced last week by City Council Member Christopher Marte hours after he rallied with a group of retired city workers outside City Hall. Similar legislation failed to progress through the City Council in 2025 and 2024, but the city’s 250,000 municipal retirees largely managed to stave off an effort backed by powerful city unions and previous mayoral administrations to change their Medicare plan to a privately-administered Medicare Advantage plan.  

Since the effort fizzled out amid staunch retiree opposition, the New York City Organization of Public Sector Retirees has focused its attention on pushing the various iterations of Marte’s bill, though it is yet to receive strong support from lawmakers. The latest version, Intro 1008, doesn't explicitly mention Medicare Advantage but would prevent the city from diminishing retirees’ healthcare benefits, including through increased premiums, deductibles, coinsurance or copayments and privatization.