In this substack by the NYC Editorial Board, Alyssa Katz asks Senator Ramos how she will address the hole in the budget left by our Court decision.
This question is leading and patently false. The City of NY raided the Healthcare Stabilization Fund to give raises to active employees. Then the City quietly (and during the pandemic) cooked up this scheme to replace retiree’s traditional Medicare with a for-profit Medicare Advantage (MA) plan. We paid into Medicare our entire working lives. We were promised healthcare. We were told that the Medicare Advantage plan would be superior to our current plan of Medicare and our supplemental insurance. IT IS NOT!
Under MA there are prior authorizations (insurance company decides what is necessary, not your doctor). No prior auths with traditional Medicare.
Under MA, doctors must be in-network. No networks with traditional Medicare.
Under MA, retirees who live across the US may be forced to travel hours to see a doctor who is in the network. Almost all doctors accept Medicare.
We need journalists to get this right. Two good places to start are NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Wendell Potter’s Substack “HEALTH CARE in-covered”
Regarding the "hole" that will be left in the NYC budget due to the court decision about retiree health care: I agree with another comment that the question is misleading and inaccurate. Retirees have been guaranteed this money for decades. To try and take it away and then say putting it back would create a hole is a misrepresentation. I'd like to point out, too, that while 600M does sound like a lot of money, it represents only a little over one half of one percent of the annual NYC budget, but concerns the lives of about 250,000 retired men and women.
Alyssa Katz asks a harmfully misleading question when she asks how Jessica Ramos plans to fill the alleged “giant hole” in the budget left by the Medicare Advantage court decision. And the link provided — to a City & State report on the retiree court win by Bob Hennelly—sheds no light on this supposedly court-created hole.
There would be no hole to fill if the City and the Municipal Labor Committee hadn’t raided the Health Stabilization Fund for raises, recklessly promising to make up for this by finding hundreds of millions in annual “health cost savings” in perpetuity. When they thought they could slip this past retirees by diminishing their healthcare and reneging on decades of promises, the retirees went to court and stopped them.
No court decision created this problem. Shamefully, the City and its largest unions did it to themselves.
“We need journalists to get this right. Two good places to start are NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Wendell Potter’s Substack “HEALTH CARE in-covered””
@Alyssa Katz you should research everything before interviewing candidates.
The question you asked Senator Ramos about “a hole in the budget” alluding to it being the NYC retirees fault because of our successful lawsuits is horrendously misleading as well as bring disinformation.
The Organization for NYC Public Service Retirees is a perfect place to start your education and there are tons of videos on You Tube by our own force of nature, Marianne Pizzitola, which can give you an in-depth accounting of why we brought those lawsuits and the harming they place upon retirees being a major point.
Let me ask you, “Suppose you were being forced to accept something for yourself and possibly your family that wouid cause you immeasurable harm? Would you just accept being used as a BETA group and threatened with force out of the blue? No vote, no accurate honest reason! Or would you research and prep and gather facts to fight back?” Your lack of accurate information when bringing up a subject when you obviously know nothing about the facts involved, makes you look like a poor journalist.
Please get your facts straight and retract this incorrect statement you presented to Senator Ramos! And please research more thoroughly before you create another interview involving NYC retirees.
There are a couple of articles on my own site about this very subject.
The Hole was created by the Healthcare Stabilization fund being misused by the City/Unions using the money for raises. Shame on them & must be stopped!
Regarding the "hole" that will be left in the NYC budget due to the court decision about retiree health care: I agree with another comment that the question is misleading and inaccurate. Retirees have been guaranteed this money for decades. To try and take it away and then say putting it back would create a hole is a misrepresentation. I'd like to point out, too, that while 600M does sound like a lot of money, it represents only a little over one half of one percent of the annual NYC budget, but concerns the lives of about 250,000 retired men and women.
In this substack by the NYC Editorial Board, Alyssa Katz asks Senator Ramos how she will address the hole in the budget left by our Court decision.
This question is leading and patently false. The City of NY raided the Healthcare Stabilization Fund to give raises to active employees. Then the City quietly (and during the pandemic) cooked up this scheme to replace retiree’s traditional Medicare with a for-profit Medicare Advantage (MA) plan. We paid into Medicare our entire working lives. We were promised healthcare. We were told that the Medicare Advantage plan would be superior to our current plan of Medicare and our supplemental insurance. IT IS NOT!
Under MA there are prior authorizations (insurance company decides what is necessary, not your doctor). No prior auths with traditional Medicare.
Under MA, doctors must be in-network. No networks with traditional Medicare.
Under MA, retirees who live across the US may be forced to travel hours to see a doctor who is in the network. Almost all doctors accept Medicare.
We need journalists to get this right. Two good places to start are NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Wendell Potter’s Substack “HEALTH CARE in-covered”
Regarding the "hole" that will be left in the NYC budget due to the court decision about retiree health care: I agree with another comment that the question is misleading and inaccurate. Retirees have been guaranteed this money for decades. To try and take it away and then say putting it back would create a hole is a misrepresentation. I'd like to point out, too, that while 600M does sound like a lot of money, it represents only a little over one half of one percent of the annual NYC budget, but concerns the lives of about 250,000 retired men and women.
Alyssa Katz asks a harmfully misleading question when she asks how Jessica Ramos plans to fill the alleged “giant hole” in the budget left by the Medicare Advantage court decision. And the link provided — to a City & State report on the retiree court win by Bob Hennelly—sheds no light on this supposedly court-created hole.
There would be no hole to fill if the City and the Municipal Labor Committee hadn’t raided the Health Stabilization Fund for raises, recklessly promising to make up for this by finding hundreds of millions in annual “health cost savings” in perpetuity. When they thought they could slip this past retirees by diminishing their healthcare and reneging on decades of promises, the retirees went to court and stopped them.
No court decision created this problem. Shamefully, the City and its largest unions did it to themselves.
“We need journalists to get this right. Two good places to start are NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Wendell Potter’s Substack “HEALTH CARE in-covered””
@Alyssa Katz you should research everything before interviewing candidates.
The question you asked Senator Ramos about “a hole in the budget” alluding to it being the NYC retirees fault because of our successful lawsuits is horrendously misleading as well as bring disinformation.
The Organization for NYC Public Service Retirees is a perfect place to start your education and there are tons of videos on You Tube by our own force of nature, Marianne Pizzitola, which can give you an in-depth accounting of why we brought those lawsuits and the harming they place upon retirees being a major point.
Let me ask you, “Suppose you were being forced to accept something for yourself and possibly your family that wouid cause you immeasurable harm? Would you just accept being used as a BETA group and threatened with force out of the blue? No vote, no accurate honest reason! Or would you research and prep and gather facts to fight back?” Your lack of accurate information when bringing up a subject when you obviously know nothing about the facts involved, makes you look like a poor journalist.
Please get your facts straight and retract this incorrect statement you presented to Senator Ramos! And please research more thoroughly before you create another interview involving NYC retirees.
There are a couple of articles on my own site about this very subject.
@kathynapoli
“Inner Sanctum of Belief”
I love these interviews and look forward to all the upcoming ones. Did I miss questions? I saw 0 about education.
Thank you for the second in a series of great interviews. You all are doing a tremendous service in filling the large gap left by the NYT
The Hole was created by the Healthcare Stabilization fund being misused by the City/Unions using the money for raises. Shame on them & must be stopped!
Regarding the "hole" that will be left in the NYC budget due to the court decision about retiree health care: I agree with another comment that the question is misleading and inaccurate. Retirees have been guaranteed this money for decades. To try and take it away and then say putting it back would create a hole is a misrepresentation. I'd like to point out, too, that while 600M does sound like a lot of money, it represents only a little over one half of one percent of the annual NYC budget, but concerns the lives of about 250,000 retired men and women.
Sincerely,
Edith Capobianco
This is not true journalism it is all false try researching the truth.