Is my healthcare safe?

The easy answer might be “no” – New York City (Mayor Adams and the financial people who cut the budget), the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) (really, representatives of the leadership of the major city unions, with greatest weight for the leaderships of District Council 37 (DC37) and the United Federation of Teachers) and the UFT leadership directly are aiming to cut health care for city employees and retirees.

Medicare

That is the easy answer. But it misses an important detail.

For over two years our retirees have been fighting to stop Mulgrew, the MLC and Adams from forcing Medicare-eligible retirees into “Medicare Advantage” – an inferior, private alternative to traditional Medicare. In the UFT many retirees against Medicare Advantage are organized in Retiree Advocate (RA), which I belong to. Some public action was built by the Cross Union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC). And effective organizing by the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees has led to multiple successful lawsuits, beating Mulgrew and Adams.

But I am not a Medicare-eligible retiree. I supported this struggle, but it does not affect me, not today, not yet.

In-service Health Care

Mulgrew has announced that he – or the UFT leadership – or the MLC – not sure the distinction is important here – are putting in-service health care out for bid – they’ve issued a “Request for Proposal” – an RFP. The winner gets to replace our in-service members’ health care with a new plan. It is easy to imagine NYC paying less for the new plan than for the current one. It is also easy to point out that chnage in our health care can be disruptive – new doctors, new offices, new rules – but we can also imagine how can changing care mid-treatment might cause issues.

But I am not in-service. I will assist in-service members – if possible – in avoiding this destructive disruption and benefit cut – but I am retired – this does not affect me today.

The Third Group

So what about me, and people like me? Retired from NYC Service. Not yet medicare-eligible. We get City benefits, including health care. I chose GHI (Emblem). That is a pretty popular option.

My health care is ok. Fine. Except the costs have been creeping up. And I resent needing prior authorization for things that should not need prior authorization. But it’s ok, Emblem, for the most part.

Is this what I had when I was working? Yup. But when I retired I changed things up, so that I could drugs through Emblem. I used to get drugs from the UFT Welfare Fund, but they cut teachers off when we retire. Also, Emblem sent me new insurance cards when I retired.

Maybe the In-Service thing, the RFP, will apply to people like me – non-Medicare-eligible retirees? Mulgrew hasn’t mentioned it. We don’t know.

Honestly, the UFT leadership should address us. Tell us what they are planning to do with us. To us.

By the way

There’s something else weird here. The UFT is not my bargaining agent. It was, when I was working, but not today. They don’t sign contracts on my behalf. I no longer vote on contracts. They don’t act to require my employer to honor the terms of my contract. I don’t have an employer. I don’t have a contract.

Look at it this way – if the retired teachers left the UFT, the rest of the UFT would look exactly like a union. But if the Retired Teachers Chapter (RTC) separated from the UFT, the RTC might look like a union support organization – an auxilliary. Or it might look like a benefits club. It would not look like a union.

Oh, something else. That MLC? Unelected. I have zero say over who negotiates on our behalf (Unity chooses). But worse – most NYC retirees – they don’t even have an auxiliary organization. They don’t have someone from their organization on the MLC. And even worse, NYC retirees include managers, who absolutely do not have representation – but who are bound by the agreements the MLC and City come up with.

So…

Is my healthcare safe? No – if they are not coming after today, they will.

They haven’t given up on Medicare Advantage. They are going after in-service health care. No chance they are going to leave us non-Medicare-eligible retirees alone.

But I wish they would tell us what’s going on.

No News Is No News: UFT Leadership announces plans are on hold; keeps all the plan details available on website, ready to roll (right over us)