A leading organization representing retired New York City civil servants living across the country is reviving a push that would block any future effort to shift the city’s 250,000 retirees and their dependents to a privatized Medicare plan.
The bill, which is being re-introduced by Councilmember Christopher Marte of Chinatown on Thursday, would prohibit the city from establishing any health care program that would “diminish” retirees’ current access to care. It specifically bars the city from raising costs for premiums, deductibles, co-insurance and copays, and from “compelling enrollment in any privatized forms of Medicare or plans with limited provider networks.”
The refreshed proposal makes no direct reference to Medicare Advantage, the controversial public-private alternative to traditional Medicare reviled by retirees who claim it offers inferior care. But it tees up yet another potential fight between the retirees, their unions and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s City Hall…