NYC Municipal Retirees Tell Mayor Adams: Stop Trying To Take Medicare Away From Former City Workers, Union Employees
Marianne Pizzitola NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
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New Yorkers Tell Mayor Adams, “Stop trying to take Medicare away from NYC retirees!”
Hundreds of Protestors to Demonstrate at City Hall and Aetna Offices
“Eric Adams may have just been indicted, but he lost our trust years ago when launched a costly legal battle to take away NYC retirees’ access to Medicare.”
Editor’s note: Staten Islander News has covered the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees during their ultimately victorious legal battle to keep the same plan that the city was contractually obligated to offer them, and stop forcing them off of their previous healthcare plan onto one that is private and poorly managed, with most services resulting in denials of payment by the insurer, regardless of need.
In the wake of Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment on five counts of bribery, fraud, and campaign finance violations, hundreds of New Yorkers protested at City Hall on Monday to demand the City immediately drop Adams’s push to take Medicare away from NYC public service retirees. Hundreds of people including NYC retirees, doctors, nurses, and healthcare advocates delivered a petition with tens of thousands of signatures.
Demonstrators then marched to Aetna CVS Health’s offices and stage street theater denouncing the insurance corporation’s profiteering at the expense of the health and lives of seniors and people with disabilities.
Brief speaking program begins at 11:30am at City Hall Park near the Jacob Wrey Mould fountain.
Protesters will march from City Hall to Spring Street Park where a demonstration and brief street theater stunt will take place at 1:30pm outside Aetna CVS Health’s One Soho Square offices.
Hundreds of people participated in the protest, including seniors and healthcare professionals carrying signs with Mayor Adams’s face and messaging about deadly delays and denials of necessary healthcare by insurance corporations like Aetna CVS Health that run Medicare Advantage plans.
Speakers: NYC retirees personally affected by the Mayor’s push to force Medicare-eligible retirees into Medicare Advantage plans; healthcare workers; and family members of people who have been harmed by insurance company greed that delays and denies life-saving healthcare.
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees Protest. Image Credit – NYC OPSR
Context: Since 2021, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his administration have been fighting a costly legal battle to push public retirees including teachers, police officers, sanitation workers, 9/11 first responders and other public servants onto privatized Medicare Advantage plans and strip away their access to Medicare benefits. The city’s plan has been rejected by the courts multiple times, and yet the Mayor continues to pursue the plan to hand over retiree healthcare benefits to profit-driven insurance corporations. Adams is specifically pursuing a contract with Aetna CVS Health, even though the switch to Medicare Advantage would benefit Adams and for-profit insurance companies but would not save the City a dime.
Recent investigations have found that the largest insurers in Medicare Advantage have committed widespread fraud and denied patients critical care they were supposed to provide by law; more broadly, they limit provider networks, delay care, and routinely deny claims in order to turn massive profits at the expense of retirees’ health.
Medicare open enrollment season begins on October 15. Read more about the protesters’ demands to Mayor Adams and to Aetna.
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees Protest. Image Credit – NYC OPSR
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees Protest. Image Credit – NYC OPSR
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees Protest. Image Credit – NYC OPSR
Banner Image: NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees Protest. Image Credit – NYC OPSR
On August 13th, 2021, a group of retirees from many different city agencies got together to form an organization to fight the impending changes to our healthcare. Two and half hours later, five people volunteered to form the Board and one became an advisor to the Board. In the next few weeks, we grew to five officers, four Trustees, five Advisors, started our Facebook group, filed for NYS incorporation, opened our PayPal fundraising account and were approved by the State to conduct business.
Six weeks later we met our initial fundraising goal to pay the attorney's retainer and had filed our article 78 petition. Our Facebook page has over 18,000 members and we have an email list of almost 10,000 and both continue to grow. This is a major accomplishment! But we need to grow larger. We need to reach 250,000 retirees!
