Thursday, February 24, 2022

NYC Retirees Opt-Out of the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan

 re-posted from NYC PUBLIC VOICE:

Mayor Bill de Blasio, shakes hands with Uniformed Sanitationmen's Local 831 President Harry Nespoli during a press conference announcing the city of New York and the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association, Local 831, have reached a tentative contract agreement in the Blue Room in City Hall Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/for New York Daily News)

On February 6, 2022, NYC's new Mayor Eric Adams put his stamp of approval on the disastrous new Medicare Advantage Plus Plan that is disliked by every retiree I know.

Adams says, "We assure you that the city has had, and will continue to have, your best interests at heart."

I don't think so. The prior authorizations are a problem. But what is really disturbing is the fact that if a retiree opts out of the new Plan then he/she must pay about $191 every month to stay with the original Medicare Program or any other retirement plan.

Mayor Adams' Statement on City's Medicare Advantage Plus Plan

February 6, 2022

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today issued the following statement on the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan: 

“City retirees have earned their benefits, and, as mayor, I’m committed to delivering for them. The NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan unveiled last year — the product of many months of negotiations between the city and the Municipal Labor Committee, representing more than 100 unions — will continue to offer premium-free health coverage to retirees, along with new and enhanced benefits. That is why after a careful and thorough review by my administration, I am announcing my support for this plan. I believe the new program will be in the best interest of retirees and the city’s taxpayers, who stand to save $600 million annually. 

“As a blue-collar mayor and someone who himself will collect municipal retiree benefits, I am sympathetic to those who have voiced concerns about how this plan will affect their coverage. Our administration will continue to work to assuage these concerns before and after the plan is implemented. To all retirees: We assure you that the city has had, and will continue to have, your best interests at heart.” 

Media Contact

pressoffice@cityhall.nyc.gov
(212) 788-2958

I do not know many New Yorkers who would agree with him at this point.

See:

NYC Retirees website nycretirees.org has current events, FAQs, etc.

Their website posts the following entries and more (I have re-posted just a few, there are many more. Well worth reading!

#1 - 11/12/2021

The City filed their documents with the Court. Our Attorney filed our response.
To read the filing click the button below, go to Page 2, scroll to the bottom for the filings.

-or-

Download the documents:

Letter to the Judge

Objection to the Revised Plan

Attorney Affirmation

Read the Filing

#17 - 01/18/2022
Letters To and From The Court!

As Letters are Sent To or Received From the Court by either our and/or opposing council we will post them here, in case some are unable to navigate the Court Web Site.

To view the associated Affidavits and Exhibits please visit the Court Website

** New **
02/23/2022 - Document 208 - Memorandum of Law Filed by Steve Cohen

02/18/2022 - Letter 207 - from OLR to the Court
02/16/2022 - Document 206 - Memorandum of Law OLR to Court
02/15/2022 - Document 205 - Memorandum of Law OLR to Court
02/07/2022 - Letter 202 From Steve Cohen to the Court
02/04/2022 - Document 201 MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN REPLY OLR Filed
02/04/2022 - Letter 200 From OLR to the Court
02/01/2022 - Letter 199 From Steve Cohen to the Court
02/01/2022 - Letter 198 From OLR to the Court
01/30/2022 - Document 189 - MEMORANDUM OF LAW Filed with the Court
01/28/2022 - Letter 184 From Steve Cohen to the Court
01/28/2022 - Letter 183 From OLR to the Court
01/21/2022 - Letter 182 From OLR to the Court
01/21/2022 - Letter 180 From Steve Cohen to the Court
01/18/2022 - Letter From Steve Cohen to the Court

Betsy Combier

NYC’s retiree health plan lays an egg

By MARCIA BIEDERMAN, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |

FEB 23, 2022 AT 5:00 AM

The city’s plan to move municipal retirees off their current health coverage into a jerry-rigged Medicare Advantage plan has yet to begin. But the show has been in previews, the word has gotten around, and the audience is heading for the exits.

By crowdsourcing standards, the plan has failed even before its projected April 1 launch date. As of last week, more than 45,000 retirees had opted out of the plan. They chose to keep their current coverage even though it will cost them thousands of dollars annually to do so.

That number is likely to mount fast. Thousands of retirees in many states and Puerto Rico have been watching videos made by three former emergency-service workers. The trio patiently answers questions about opting out, by phone or online. Lines to the plan’s so-called welcome center seem jammed with goodbyes. On a recent day, one caller was twice placed on hold and disconnected

Municipal Labor Committee Chair Harry Nespoli has dismissed opponents as ”only a small fraction of the retiree community,” insisting that “the vast majority of retirees understand the benefits of the new plan.” But of the quarter-million people set to be moved into Medicare Advantage, nearly one in five are willing to pay the high price of rejecting it. Nespoli needs to do the math, this time with a calculator.

Among the refusers are the hundreds of retirees who rallied near City Hall on Valentine’s Day, asking Mayor Adams to halt the impending health care switch. And the 1,800 who signed their names to a “Wall of Broken Hearts,” displayed at the event.

Nespoli is partly right, however: Most retirees will land in the new plan, like it or not. Many can’t pay the stiff new premiums to keep their current coverage, which for most is traditional Medicare and a supplement. Others could be trapped while searching for an escape. If, as expected, a court-ordered stay on the plan’s launch is lifted next month, the city will toggle masses of former firefighters, teachers, cops and clerks into the brand-new NYC Medicare Advantage Plus plan.

Some won’t know what hit them until their Medicare Advantage cards are turned down by the doctor’s office. Those wanting out of the new plan will find it’s like a Roach Motel: easy to check into but tough to check out of. That may be why the city, under the guise of a “trial period,” is offering a second opt-out deadline of June 30. Unwitting enrollees could be mired for months.

The three former emergency-services workers have made videos pointing the way out. They are board members of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, whose lawsuit won a temporary stay on the plan’s rollout, which a Manhattan judge called “irrational.” Next week, lawyers for both sides will argue whether the city has the authority to make this change, with a ruling expected next month.

The group’s leaders are optimistic about the outcome. But given the difficulties of disenrollment, they advise those wanting to opt-out to act now, before the glue sticks.

Like FDR’s fireside chats, these evening advice sessions have calmed retirees in a time of adversity. Some viewers can’t opt out, some are thinking of giving the new plan a whirl, others want to switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, still offered by the city for a limited time. The chat hosts don’t judge, leaving that decision up to each retiree.

If only the municipal unions took that attitude. Having raided a city fund meant for health benefits to find money for workers’ raises, the unions are desperate to save costs on retiree coverage. Hence, we find Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, dismissing the worries of the many retirees whose doctors say they won’t accept the new insurance.

“They don’t know what network they’re in. Their billing departments do,” Mulgrew said in an October webinar. Indeed, when one of Mulgrew’s own doctors said he wasn’t in the new plan, Mulgrew refused to believe him. “He had no clue,” the union president said. Why else would the doctor be listed in the plan’s provider directory?

Because mistakes happen, as Memorial Sloan Kettering discovered. After lengthy negotiations, MSK signed a short-term contract with the city’s new plan. Yet it continued to print bills warning that no Medicare Advantage plans were accepted, alarming retirees. As this paper reported, that was a hospital error, since corrected.

That didn’t prevent Mulgrew, so trusting of billing departments, from pointing his finger elsewhere. In an email to UFT retirees, he wrote, “The spreading of misinformation by the plan’s opponents has got to stop. Our retirees are getting hurt.”

Yes, they are. Mr. Mulgrew, Mr. Nespoli, and Mayor Adams. Legions of resisters have sent you a message: This plan has got to stop.

Biederman is a writer and member of the Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee. In 2016, she retired from teaching for the Department of Education.

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Monday, February 21, 2022

February 22, 2022: The Numerology Guide and Synchronicity

Al Musawar magazine, 1981, on the Solar Video project

I have been thinking about the date 2/22/22. This multiple of 2s falls on a Tuesday.

That's a lot of 2s. And a Tuesday thrown in for anyone who didn't notice the first roll of the dice. What, if anything, does this mean?

I am not in any way a fanatic about numbers, planets, fate, ancient origins of words, or any of that stuff. I look at these topics as interesting, a side dish to my life rather than the entree.

Me, center, with film star Nadia Lutfi on my left in the Cairo museum

But I couldn't pass up an opportunity to look at this singular date on the calendar and wonder, what if it does mean something?

Numerology says this about the number 2: "The Numerology number 2 is known to numerologists as a supremely feminine force, one that represents both grace and power. It is cooperative, always aiming to bring peace and balance back to a relationship or situation. This Numerology number is also very sensitive -- of all the numbers, it has the strongest intuition. It is able to sense currents and feelings instinctively, then use these clues to connect with others emphatically.

At its very core the 2 in Numerology represents partnerships -- the coming together or balancing of two individual people, concepts, or things. While it holds great power over any situation, it wields it with such diplomacy and tact that the result is not control and authority, but harmony and teamwork. It is a mediator, able to see two sides of a situation in an unbiased way and guide others down the middle road."

As a twin, I grew up with "oh, there's two of you!"

My mom collected books on everything - Mysticism, Rosicrucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, the metaphysical value of life and being, etc - as any intellectual would, who was raised by parents who were German Jews with a lot of money and time to contemplate about things. Her father, my grandfather Samuel Strauss was a journalist and newspaperman. Her birthday was February 14, or 2/14, and I and my twin were born on 7/11. My mom volunteered for 49 years at a church in Manhattan, and every Sunday after services she took a cup of water to Central Park, only a block away, where four-leaf clovers jumped up and she put them into her cup so they wouldn't shrivel up before she was able to press them in plastic sheets when she got home. I found some too. Four leaves meant something, three leaves not so much. I think that the information that my paternal grandmother was from Ireland is irrelevant (or is it?). 

So numbers have always been interesting, just as "coincidences" are. When I was at Northwestern University, I majored in Child Psychology but minored in synchronicity (actually, English literature) because so many events seemed to be happening which altered my life in meaningful ways, yet could not be rationally linked. I always make note of cues that say "stop" what you are doing, look at this. I'm suggesting that you do too.

A belief in synchronicity must be accompanied by a certain amount of faith in knowing that you are presented with information for which there may be no factual reason and that you are being challenged to find one, or not. We human beings are always trying to find the basis for something happening in order to unravel the chaos around us and make some kind of sense of it all. Sometimes it is useful to do this, other times, not. Maybe more time should be spent on saying to yourself, "ok, this happened. Now, what do I do about it, if anything?" We each can and should give an event its' meaning but not look for "the" reason given to you by someone else. It gets complicated. Just do not accept anyone else's definition of the reason for something happening. Sure, it is fun to look at why or how, but I believe in going to "what do I do now"? "What meaning does this have for me"?

Everything we do is based upon a certain amount of faith. When we cross a busy street at a green light, we must have faith that we will not be run over by a car. When we reach the stairs and prepare to walk down them, we must have faith that we can walk without tumbling and hurting ourselves. You stop thinking about faith, but it is always there, as are the bad things that happen to good people but not for the lack of faith. I believe we just need to try to see the road less traveled on which we are being asked/compelled/directed to embark.

The quote below is on my Facebook page and at the top of a page on my website Parentadvocates.org:

"FAITH When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly." Patrick Overton

Christopher Wren

For instance, after I read about Basaisa, a solar village in Egypt's Nile Delta area in the NY Times on June 11, 1978, by Christopher Wren, I tore the entire page out and put it in my desk, hoping sometime to get to this little village in Egypt to see the solar TV, a wonderful invention, and to meet Dr. Salah Arafa at the American University in Cairo. I was lucky to meet Mr. Wren and thank him in the mid-1980s.

 
At the time I was a producer of TV video programs with ABC. Every year members of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ("NATAS")  were invited on a trip to a part of the world where a visit would be made to the television station headquarters. In November 1978 where was the trip scheduled to go?

Egypt. I "knew" I had to be on that trip.

A few minutes after taking my seat on the charter flight, I heard "Betsy, what are you doing on this plane?" I looked behind me, and there was Jimmy, my cameraman from the days when I produced the show "Cue on J", and a friend. I could not believe the coincidence, and he told me that if he had a free day during the week in Egypt, he would be glad to accompany me to the little village with his cameras, and we could do a little mini-documentary.

We got off of the plane, went to our hotel, the Mena House, across the street from the Pyramids. Quite a wonderful place.

 While everyone in my group went to the Cairo Museum, I got into a taxi and paid 25 cents to go to the American University to find Dr. Arafa. When I found his office, I took a seat and waited for him. He finally entered the room and changed my life. He spoke about setting up the solar-powered TV so that he could tell the villagers in Basaisa all about helping themselves by working together. 

Of course, his free day was Thursday, which was the exact and only free day I and Jimmy had, and we all went to Basaisa. I saw the kids watching an Egyptian program on the TV and asked Dr. Afara if he thought the solar panel on the roof of the little room could be used to power a video playback machine. I could borrow cameras from the networks. The purpose was to assist the people in producing their own programs using solar video equipment. Salah liked the idea and did not think I was crazy. He did a voice-over for my short piece on the solar TV which NBC news grabbed up when I returned to New York City. Salah remains a mentor for me.

What are the odds of going on a trip to Egypt a few weeks after reading the story of the solar village in the NY Times, having a friend on my plane with his camera equipment want to help me with a story out in the middle of nowhere in Egypt's Delta area, meeting Salah, getting the idea for a solar video project, and having such a widely-respected physics teacher at AUC believe in this far-out idea of the solar video? I don't know, zero to 100% I guess. 

I returned to NY and told my mom that I was moving to Cairo, and I did just that. I  set up a system where villagers produced videos, and we passed these on to various members of the Egyptian government who were ready and willing to allocate funding to appropriate technologies desired by the villagers themselves, with the details stated in their own voices.  I became friends with everyone in the Egyptian government after a film star, Nadia Lutfi, told me I was moving into her duplex in Garden City, Cairo because my friend Abdel Rahman Ali asked her to take care of me while he received cancer treatment in London. I would only leave my small flat near AUC if she agreed to take my two puppies rescued by me after I found them sitting under a car outside my apartment. Paula (Nadia's real name) agreed, so I moved to Garden City with the two little pups.

I was at the time enrolled in a Master's Program at NY University, the Interactive Telecommunications Masters Program, or ITP, and fortunately, Director Red Burns was interested enough to allow me to write reports on my Egyptian solar video project to complete my coursework. I wrote my Master's thesis on the application of solar video to agricultural projects in rural Egypt and received my MPS in 1984, when I left Egypt and put the self-sustaining solar video project in the capable hands of people at the American University in Cairo. The ABC Network office in London transcribed the Egyptian PAL System tapes to NTSC for free so I could play them in the US. I still have copies of these tapes. 

People say if you are open to the idea of synchronicity, a holographic universe, instances of deja vu, and similar instances of mystical occurrences you will notice things that happen to you and choose to examine the event, person or thing a little more carefully. You may see a new path that you had never considered, or you may want to make changes to your career or life and believe that you should/could/will succeed.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022. Think about it.

Betsy Combier


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Monday, February 14, 2022

Almost 1,500 New York City Employees Get Fired For Not Getting Vaccinated Against the COVID Vaccine

 

People gather for the anti-vaccine mandate protest ahead of possible termination of New York City employees due to their
vaccination status, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Manhattan, New York. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

UPDATE:

February 17, 2022

Supreme Court Judge Neil Gorsuch Overturns Decision By Sonia Sotomayor and Agrees To Hear Vaccine Mandate Protests From NYC Teachers

Advocatz.com

The outrageous become the impossible on Friday, when allegedly 1500 city workers were fired after they did not get vaccinated against the COVID virus.

On the issue of the 914 Department of Education employees supposedly fired on friday, anyone with tenure must have a 3020-a hearing before their jobs are taken away. No one received charges, and no one received a proper Notice that they had a right to the 3020-as arbitration.

Last week I spoke with 100+ employees who are /will be terminated, and told all those with tenure to send an email to NYSUT General Counsel Beth Norton (BNorton@uft.org) saying that they did not waive their right to a 3020-a and request a hearing pursuant to 3020-a Education Law, Section ((2)(a).

See 

The New York City 3020-a Arbitration “Teacher Trial” Is Based on Fraud, Advocatz.com, September 5, 2021

Although the process used in 3020-a arbitration in New York City is, in my opinion, unfair, employees must go through the process in order to have the right to sue the DOE after the hearing is over.  So many great and wonderful employees now gone is a tragedy from which the students of those employees may never recover. 

It's about trust, control, and money, not COVID.




People gather for the anti-vaccine mandate protest ahead of possible termination of New York City employees due to their
vaccination status, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Manhattan, New York. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

Nearly 1,500 NYC workers get the ax for flouting the COVID vaccine mandate

By  and , NY DAILY NEWS, February 14, 2022

Nearly 1,500 city workers lost their jobs Friday after failing to comply with a mandate that they are vaccinated for COVID — a bloodletting that included dismissals from the ranks of the NYPD, FDNY and the Department of Education.

While staggering in their sheer number, the firings were a long time in the making.

Mayor Adams’ predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, announced the vaccine mandate for city workers in October. Adams kept it in place when he took office, and by Friday, the city had hit a key milestone: for nearly 3,500 city workers, it was either time to show proof of inoculation or be sent packing.

Adams appeared to downplay the firings on Monday when the city announced the numbers, and instead of addressing them at a press conference or in a Q-and-A, he issued a written statement through a spokesperson.

“City workers served on the frontlines during the pandemic, and by getting vaccinated, they are, once again, showing how they are willing to do the right thing to protect themselves and all New Yorkers. Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them,” he said. “Out of all the new city employees who received notices two weeks ago, only two who worked last week are no longer employed by the city. I’m grateful to all the city workers who continue to serve New Yorkers and ‘Get Stuff Done’ for the greatest city in the world.”

It was not immediately clear who the two workers were that Adams referred to, or which agencies they worked for, but a spokesperson for the mayor said Monday that a total of 1,430 unvaccinated municipal employees were fired on Friday due to their refusal to comply with the mandate. Of those, 914 worked for the Education Department, 101 worked for the New York City Housing Authority and 75 worked for the Department of Correction.

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) released a statement Monday evening disagreeing with the city’s legal authority to terminate employees based on the COVID vaccine mandate.

“The union is part of a lawsuit that would ensure that these cases go through the due process disciplinary procedures established in state law and the union contract. A hearing on this matter is scheduled for March 1, 2020 in New York State Supreme Court.”

The total number — 1,430 workers fired in a single day — is unprecedented in modern New York City history. Still, it is relatively small when bearing in mind that the city employs a workforce of more than 370,000.

The NYPD, FDNY and Sanitation Department also saw their share of employees head out the door over failing to follow the mandate, but far fewer left their ranks than from the other agencies. Thirty-six people employed by the NYPD were dismissed, 25 were forced out of the fire department and 40 were fired from the Department of Sanitation.

The departing employees fall into two categories.

The first group consists of people who were hired on or after Aug. 2, 2021. As a condition of being hired, they were required to be fully vaccinated within 45 days, but two weeks ago they were given notice that they had until last Friday to supply the city with proof of receiving a second vaccine dose.

About 1,000 city employees fell into that category, and of those, only two — apparently the ones Adams was referring to in his statement — were fired.

But far more people from the second group did receive termination notices.

That group of about 2,400 consisted of workers whose unions made a deal with the city to allow unvaccinated employees to receive health care benefits while simultaneously being on unpaid leave.

Since November, the people in that category who have remained unvaccinated have not been working or getting paid. And on Friday, 1,428 of them ran out of options when they failed to provide the city with proof of vaccination, which led to their being officially terminated.

The rest — about 40% of the 2,400 workers — have since been vaccinated and have returned to work.

Last week, Adams offered little sympathy to those who were on the firing line — though he begged to differ when it came to the term “firing.”

“We’re not firing them. People are quitting,” he said at a news conference last Thursday. “The responsibility is clear. We said it: if you’re hired, if you get this job, you have to be vaccinated. If you are not following the rules, you are making that decision.”

His and the city’s stance were backed up last week with two court rulings. In one, a Brooklyn federal judge rejected a push from anti-vaccine city workers to temporarily block the city from letting them go. In that decision, Judge Diane Gujarati declared that the anti-vaxxers had not “met their burden of demonstrating their entitlement to the extraordinary remedy of a temporary restraining order.”

In the other decision, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor turned down a request by 14 Department of Education employees who were terminated after the city denied their requests for religious exemptions to vaccination requirements.

Michael Gartland

Michael Gartland

New York Daily News



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Monday, February 7, 2022

NJ Governor Murphy Will End School Mask Mandate in March

 

A student waits for First Lady Jill Biden to arrive at his classroom at the Samuel Smith
Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., March 15, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Pool via Reuters)

The turmoil may be over, for some.

Betsy Combier

New Jersey Governor to End School Mask Mandate

Democratic New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy will eliminate the state’s K-12 public school mask mandate.

Murphy, the vice-chairman of the National Governors Association, said Sunday that he would officially announce the move the following day. Under the new policy, which takes effect in mid-March, individual districts will still be permitted to implement their own mask mandates.

The policy change comes as Covid hospitalizations and cases continue to plummet and as the FDA considers authorizing a vaccine for children younger than five-years-old.

The Omicron variant has proven less lethal and more transmissible than its predecessors. Vaccinated individuals spread the variant rather efficiently, though they do not suffer severe consequences at the same rate as the unvaccinated, and the cloth masks used by much of the population have proven ineffective in containing its spread.

Most children are unvaccinated in New Jersey, but scientific studies still continue to suggest that this age group is the least likely to develop severe illness as a result of contracting the virus.

Murphy said the timing of the relaxed restrictions was intentional, as March is when warmer weather starts to roll around, allowing schools to open windows for better air circulation, he told the New York Times. 

“It isn’t July Fourth,” he said, “but it gets you into a marginally better weather period.”

While New Jersey was one of eleven states to impose K-12 mask mandates, Murphy has long acknowledged that masking would not become a permanent fixture of American life. Making them optional is a “huge step toward normalcy,” he told the Times. Students in New Jersey had been forced to wear masks since September 2020.

Murphy’s decision comes as masking wars heat up in politically divided states like Virginia, where the recently elected Republican Youngkin administration is battling rogue school districts that continue to defy the governor’s mask-mandate ban. Some parents and students have formed resistance movements in response, even in blue bulwarks like Washington state, where a group of high schoolers organized an anti-mask mandate protest with hundreds of students last week.

CAROLINE DOWNEY is a news writer for National Review Online. 


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