June 23, 2024
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
New York – Sunday, June 23, 2024 – Today, the United Federation of Teachers has finally acknowledged what hundreds of thousands of retired New York City municipal workers have been arguing for years: that the City should not be forcing its elderly and disabled retirees off of traditional Medicare and into a dangerous, for-profit Medicare Advantage plan. Retirees are grateful that the UFT has changed its position and withdrawn its support for the City’s vindictive and unlawful effort to deny elderly and disabled retirees the healthcare they earned and were promised.
The UFT—the largest municipal union, representing over 120,000 City employees—has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the City to stop its illegal scheme to force retirees into Medicare Advantage. For three years an ad-hoc coalition of retirees has been fighting this illegal scheme in the courts and in the City Council. And while retirees have been continuously successful – winning 9 victories over three separate lawsuits and thwarting an attempt to change the law – the City still can’t seem to get the message: enough is enough!
It is time for the City to come to its senses and end its senseless, illegal war on retirees. If retirees are forced off of traditional Medicare and into the City’s new Medicare Advantage plan, thousands will be denied access to the doctors they depend on and the medical care they desperately need. And, as the director of the NYC Independent Budget Office testified, City taxpayers will not save a dime.
The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees is calling on the Adams Administration to protect retirees’ healthcare rights and to work with retirees to find real, sensible solutions to today’s healthcare challenges.
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Media Contacts:
Marianne Pizzitola, President
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
Walden, Macht & Haran
