Marianne Pizzitola is fighting for the long-promised health insurance benefits for NYC municipal workers. Many people take jobs with the City of New York based on the promise that they and their loved ones will have healthcare during their retirement.
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The City made an agreement through the Municipal Labor Council, with the cooperation of the unions, to change all workers’ health insurance plans to a privatized Medicare “Advantage” plan. The financial burden this new health plan would cause is massive.
The new plan makes it difficult, and often impossible, for City workers to get the healthcare that their doctor has recommended, due to the new plan having a different fee structure and the necessity for prior authorizations for nearly everything – including medications.
Keep reading for more details about this change, and the fight to keep the healthcare plan that City workers were promised when they took their jobs, especially in 2014, when they were asked to forgo raises because they would have excellent benefits.
To start with, there are fewer doctors in the network, so workers will often have to change doctors or see their doctor out of network – at a higher cost.
Most of the prior authorizations with this new plan are rejected.
Those workers who want to opt-out of their being placed into the plan automatically have to pay an additional $200 per month per person, just to keep the insurance plan they have now.
A large number of these former City workers took those municipal jobs, which usually paid less than their private-sector counterparts, for the health benefits and retirement pension that was promised to them when they got those jobs.
Now, years later, the City is changing the deal.
Marianne Pizzitola helped found a group that is essentially a union for retirees, called the NYC Organization of Public Service retirees. The group has started several lawsuits, and they have won the first of them, and the City’s appeal.
All retired and current City workers are welcome to join this group, in order to fight for their healthcare, benefits, and the healthcare of future City workers.
Update 12/28/22: To sign the petition to ask the City Council not to amend Administrative Code Section 12-126, visit change.org here
You can also find a letter template at the same link to send to the City Council speaker and Mayor Adams. Writing to your City Council member or to the Mayor is important, in addition to signing the petition.
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Banner Image: Marianne Pizzitola cover. Image Credit – Staten Islander News Organization
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