Another Comment about the Medicare Advantage Preliminary Injunction
Mulgrew sent out:
“A state judge on Oct. 21 ordered an extension … to give you and medical providers more time to learn about this unique health care plan..”
Michael Mulgrew, email to UFT retirees.
The judge wrote:
“…the Court feels that the method of implementation of this plan at present has been irrational, and thus arbitrary and capricious. … retirees have been given a deadline of October 31 … It is simply irrational for retirees to have to make this decision as circumstances currently stand.
Honorable Lyle E Frank
what Mulgrew says the judge wrote is different from the judge’s actual words
Judge Frank wrote what he wrote. We can read it for ourselves. And this time Mulgrew’s claims can be directly evaluated. Does Frank say that he is giving retirees more time to learn about Medicare Advantage Plus?
No, he says the implementation plan is irrational. He further states “if [retirees] are required to opt-in or out of a medical program by the October 31, 2021 deadline there would certainly be irreparable harm.” And he orders the Municipal Labor Coalition (including the UFT) and the City not to give retirees more time to think it over. He orders them to:
“… cure deficiencies with the implementation of the proposed new Medicare Advantage Plan… “
Honorable Lyle E Frank
The last time I saw Unity selling something so hard, so irrationally – it was the 2005 contract. I recoiled with mistrust at the hard sell. As any thinking person might do now.
JD2718 
For all interested parties in the NYC MAPP I have some observations to make. I have invested some time figuring out whether to Opt-Out (in effect, remaining in the Medicare Advantage plan that City has us in right now) or go into the new premium-free MAPP. I have already made that educated seat-of-the-pants decision about which Medicare Plan to choose, right or wrong.
The biggest nagging concern I have right now on November 22, 2021, is the uncommunicative stance both the UFT and the City of New York Municipal Labor Committee and the NYC Office of Labor Relations has taken since NYS Justice Lyle Frank on October 21st issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TSO) that extends the enrollment period. The judge also wants to have certain deficiencies cured and presented for his review.
Over the summer and in early October written materials and letters were received from the union and city groups explaining the pros and cons and emphasizing Opt-Out deadlines. After the Justice Frank TSO came out, from the same groups: crickets.
We have not received any communications from the UFT, NYC Office of Labor Relations, or the City Municipal Labor Committee. Previous deadlines for filing are no longer important, is there a new filing deadline?, problems with the MAPP process and filing itself? – about these matters and questions – no instructions or narrative received from the UFT or City either by mail, newsletter, or monthly paper. Not even a mention of the important TSO by these groups to retirees. If there was any to date I have not seen it.
All the while, employees and retirees are wondering about what to do, or not what to do. All the while, we listen to incessant advertisements on TV about Medicare transfer periods. All the while, crickets, from the parties to the new MAPP who should be communicating.
To me, all this makes you wonder who can you depend on when you need direction? Answer: simply, yourself, fellow retirees, TV, and the internet. If the parties to this new MAPP are not there to communicate, it is difficult to believe that the new premium-free will turn out to be the product they advertise that will be better for retirees. Is this what we will get when we need fast medical advice, rapid treatment, quick tests, and ready hospital help in time of need. These periods of need arrive unannounced.
Employees deserve much better communications. In regular circumstances, It’s okay for MAPP parties like the UFT, the Municipal Labor Committee, and the Office of Labor Relations to announce tight deadlines that are designed for their benefit. However, when plans go off the track and deadlines are changed – the conductor and the bosses are nowhere to be found, avoiding the bright light and hard questions. Away somewhere with the crickets.
Another instance of retirees getting something (no information: nothing) from government and employers that we don’t deserve.