Staten Island, NYC Municipal Retirees To Rally To Support Their Legal Team in Latest Battle With Mayor Adams, City of New York

Editor’s note: NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees shared their unanimous decision handed down by the highest court in the state of New York in response to their previous lawsuit against the city and its illegal attempts to remove something that they are obligated to provide in the contract between the city and union workers.  It is clearly spelled out that retired union members are to have their health insurance paid, along with their dependents, and they are allowed to utilize Medicare, which is a public health insurance policy.  Medicare Advantage sounds better than Medicare, but it is inferior policies provided by for-profit insurance companies to compete with the superior Medicare programs funded and run by the government.  Staten Islander News asked Marianne Pizzitola, of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, the following questions.  They and the answers are below:

On Thursday, May 15th, at 8:30 AM, 100 members from the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, met in front of 250 Broadway – in the shadow of City Hall – and mounted our buses for the ride to Albany, where they lent their support to our attorneys as they began the next courtroom fight against a city that seems to not care about its 250,000 retirees.

This battle, before the panel of judges in the highest court in the State of New York, is the third against the city. Despite losing twice in lower courts and spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money, Mayor Eric Adams continues to fight to strip away the health care benefits Retirees were promised when we began our decades of public service as office workers, cops, building custodians, firefighters, school crossing guards, librarians, home health care attendants, mechanics, correction officers, and EMT’s.

It is a shameful display of arrogance by the city and Mayor Adams who seems to think stealing traditional Medicare health benefits from the elderly and disabled is a solution to close a budget gap. This gap, created by Bill DeBlasio, was to fund raises for a bloc of voters who helped get him elected. It is shameful! To think that this so-called savings and the half billion dollars could actually close the hole in the city’s $113 billion dollar budget by a whopping .45 percent is ludicrous. But the fact is that there is no taxpayer savings at all. It’s a shell game.

Our members will suffer from wrongful delays and denials of care, red tape between them and the healthcare their doctors order. At a time when they need it most, many would be aging without dignity and the medical care they need. You’ve heard the stories, too. And the fact is that the federal government’s Medicare plan works and works well. Especially compared with a private for-profit alternative that is based on a person getting less care with more effort. Just last week the Department of Justice brought a Qui Tam lawsuit against 3 companies, including Aetna, alleging unlawful kickbacks and discrimination against the disabled.

On Thursday, we boarded buses to Albany to support our legal team, which is arguing against the city in the Court of Appeals. We departed from lower Manhattan and arrived in Albany in time for the court to come to order.

Below are photos from a previous rally at City Hall:

City Hall Retiree rally. Image Credit – NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

City Hall Retiree rally. Image Credit – NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

City Hall Retiree rally. Image Credit – NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

City Hall Retiree rally. Image Credit – NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

Banner Image: Eric Adams Broke Our Trust sign. Image Credit NYC OPSR