Then there was one: Ruling will allow city to preserve needed Medicare Advantage switch
Be careful what you wish for. The city retirees who formed the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, pushing relentlessly to derail City Hall’s effort to move most retirees to a new Medicare Advantage plan by charging them to stay in the existing Medicare plan, ultimately won in court. They won’t have to pay to stay in their original plans, which now seems like a rather Pyrrhic victory given the upshot that those plans will almost certainly stop existing altogether.
In a March ruling, a judge concurred with the retirees’ argument that local law barred the administration from charging them anything for the original plans, yet to the plaintiffs’ chagrin, he also pointed out that the plan had to be free only so long as it continued to exist. If the city did away with it entirely and left only the Medicare Advantage plan for retirees free of charge, it would still be complying with the law.
Now, Martin Scheinman, who has chaired the Tripartite Health Insurance Policy Committee since its 2018 creation and is designated arbitrator between the city and the Municipal Labor Committee, has issued a decision directing the city to reach a deal with Aetna to implement the new Medicare Advantage program within 25 days of his Dec. 15 decision. Barring City Council action, the existing plan will stop being offered within 45 days, leaving the Aetna plan as the last one standing.
The retirees’ years of toil in service to our city deserve respect, and their concerns aren’t frivolous, yet they have not produced any conclusive evidence that their fears over diminished coverage and higher costs have real basis. If anything, the predicted $600 million in annual savings that will be reinvested into the Health Care Stabilization Fund will safeguard their health.
In his ruling, Scheinman orders the city to incorporate “guarantees and penalties previously discussed with Aetna should the promises made by Aetna not be delivered on. These assurances must be verifiable and enforceable.” We will all be watching.
