City Council bill will require city to keep retirees on traditional federal Medicare
CITY HALL — THE CITY’S MUNICIPAL RETIREES UNION HAS RECEIVED A BOOST from City Councilmember Christopher Marte in its ongoing fight to protect traditional Medicare coverage. Marte, who represents the first Council District in Lower Manhattan, was set to host a rally alongside New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 23, to advocate for the safeguarding of healthcare choices of New York City’s retired municipal employees. The rally took place prior to the Council Stated Meeting, where Marte introduced legislation mandating that nearly 250,000 city retirees keep the federal health care benefit for which they paid through salaries and that decades of mayoral administrations have promised.
The bill would fight the city’s ongoing efforts to push retirees into a private Medicare Advantage plan and was drafted after a protracted set of legal challenges from retirees and growing opposition to the city’s Medicare Advantage Plan, which retirees say would limit their access to their trusted doctors and would impose unnecessary financial burdens. The retirees won ten favorable Supreme Court decisions including two unanimous appeals decisions but the city has continued its appeals. Martes’ bill would preserve the retirees’ right to stay in traditional Medicare as promised.
A March 2024 survey of health systems revealed that private Medicare Advantage is losing traction among healthcare providers: 19% had stopped accepting one or more Medicare Advantage plans in 2023, and that 61% of health systems could stop accepting Medicare Advantage-enrolled patients within the next two years.
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