Mayor Eric Adams has officially decided to ink a five-plus year contract with Aetna to provide a Medicare Advantage plan for the city’s roughly 250,000 retirees and their dependents. The plan aims to save the city $600 million in claims, but some believe the move will cut into retirees’ established healthcare benefits.

“Our administration has never wavered in our commitment to provide retirees and their dependents with high-quality, sustainable coverage while allowing us to rein in the skyrocketing costs of healthcare and the strain it is placing on our city’s budget,” said Adams in a statement.

The mayor’s office said that the new Aetna Medicare plan will provide a lower deductible for retirees and cap out-of-pocket expenses. Additionally, the plan significantly limits the number of procedures requiring prior authorization.

The contract was approved by the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) on March 9. This September, retirees that have Medicare will automatically be enrolled in the new plan.

President of NYC Organization of Public Service Retiree, Marianne Pizzitola, feels that this will force retired city workers into a plan they don’t want. She was advocating for the mayor to consider Option C, which allows retirees to opt out and receive traditional Medicare or medigap plan. 

“It’s like I’m being forced or compelled to waive my city health benefits and by doing so I am losing my Medicare B reimbursements, in some cases my prescription plan,” said Pizzitola.

Pizzitola said that the opt out option that the city went with, HIP VIP Plan, is not available in all counties and some hospitals or doctors don’t accept the Medicare Advantage plan. She’s worried about co-pays for seniors, out-of-pocket costs, and useless perks. And she said, there are retirees with transplant or cancer treatments in facilities where Aetna is not in their network. She called the new plan “disingenuous.”

“We can help [the mayor] find wasteful spending in the city all day long but it should never be on the backs of a retired worker who’s disabled, infirm, who was made promises by the city that we would have premium free healthcare and a choice of our healthcare plan,” said Pizzitola.

She added that it’s especially disheartening considering the city workforce is primarily people of color and women of color and therefore many of its retirees are the same demographic. She said that many on a fixed income can’t pay rent or afford extra costs. “These are your ladies of color, mostly single seniors and are low-income retirees,” said Pizzitola. 

Jake Gardner of Walden Macht & Haran, a lawyer who is representing the organization, explained that the public service retiree group has already filed suit against the city three times over healthcare. A little over a year ago, they challenged the city’s initial Medicare Advantage plan. The courts ruled in their favor. In 2022, they sued the city and Emblem Health for charging retirees co-pays for their senior care, which is against the law. That litigation is ongoing, but in the meantime retirees aren’t being charged.

“This is our third time in the last year and a half suing the city for their attempt to deprive elderly and disabled retirees of their healthcare rights and so this is really becoming an assault on their healthcare rights of retirees,” said Gardner.

Gardner said that the retiree group does intend to challenge this Medicare Advantage plan as well but could not reveal details at this time since the lawsuit has not been filed yet.

They are also proposing a bill that mandates a medigap plan to “protect” retirees’ healthcare. Pizzitola said if she can get the bill introduced she’ll name it after former Councilmember Mary Pinkett. In the 1970s, Pinkett championed retired civil servant and city employer healthcare coverage under the 12-126 code. 

“With today’s historic award by the city of New York Office of Labor Relations, we’ll offer a customized Medicare Advantage plan that provides high-quality, affordable and convenient health care for City of New York retirees who’ve devoted their careers to serving New Yorkers,” said President of Aetna and Executive Vice President of CVS Health Dan Finke in a statement. “With nearly 60 years of Medicare expertise and experience, we stand ready to serve retirees through our network of primary care and specialty physicians, mental health providers and hospitals they know and trust.” 

The contract is valued at more than $15 billion over the course of the first five years and four months. The MLC can negotiate the contract every two years.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

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The Nets’ 107-102 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Barclays Center on Tuesday night could prove to be costly. They were 43-36 and the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference heading into last night’s game against the Detroit Pistons on the road, just one game ahead of the No. 7 seed Miami Heat, which was 42-37 and played the 76ers in Philadelphia yesterday evening.

Both teams have two regular season games remaining. The Nets will play both their games in Brooklyn. They face the Orlando Magic tomorrow and the 76ers Sunday. The Heat have the Washington Wizards on the road tomorrow and the Magic in Miami on Sunday. The Nets were on a three-game winning streak prior to falling to the Timberwolves. The eventual No. 6 seed is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs while the No. 7 seed will have to earn their way into the postseason via the Play-In Tournament.

They were led by guard Spencer Dinwiddie’s game-high 30 points. Forward Mikal Bridges deposited 24 but shot just 9-24. The Nets and Wolves remained close throughout the entire 48 minutes. There were 24 lead changes and eight ties but Minnesota closed out the final 2:36 of the fourth quarter with a 9-4 advantage after the score was equaled at 98-98 on a 26-foot step-back jumper by Dinwiddie. Forward Karl-Anthony Towns lifted the Timberwolves with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists while guard Anthony Edwards had 23 points. Center Rudy Gobert finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and his signature sound defense.

“Yeah, I thought Rudy was really good,” said Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn. “Conversely to the last time we played them, where he pretty much stayed in drop [coverage] and allowed us to make those shots. He kind of switched some of those pick-and-rolls [tonight] and moved his feet a little bit and had some quality contests, which I thought was the difference in some of those looks for Mikal.”

On Monday, Bridges, who has been outstanding for the Nets since they acquired him from the Phoenix Suns in February in the Kevin Durant trade, was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played from Monday, March 27, through Sunday, April 2. During that period, the Nets went 3-0 as Bridges averaged 33 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals in 38.3 minutes per game. It is the 26-year-old Bridges first Player of the Week honor of his five-year career.

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Howard Schultz, the now-former Starbucks CEO, testified in Congress about how the specialty coffee company treats workers who are trying to form a union.

The coffee chains’ workers have been calling for management to bargain with its union reps at Starbucks Workers United (SWU) ever since the first Starbucks location was unionized in Buffalo, NY in 2021. 

SWU now represents workers in 295 Starbucks stores across 37 states, yet management has still not settled on a bargaining agreement.

Shultz had stepped down as Starbucks CEO on March 20, 2023––two weeks earlier than planned. But he had been warned that he might face a subpoena to get him to testify before the senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee about his coffee chain’s treatment of union organizing efforts. He had been asked to sit before the committee by HELP’s chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), who professed his concern about Shultz’ strong anti-union stance at a time when the coffee chain is seeing rapid union organizing among its workers. 

In a written statement before Schultz came to testify, Sanders had pointed out in a committee report that “At Schultz’s direction, Starbucks has fought the attempts of workers every step of the way, resorting to delay tactics and significant escalation in union busting, including unlawfully firing employees, having the police called in response to a peaceful and lawful congregation of workers who were attempting to present their request for union recognition, and illegally shutting down unionized stores.

“Workers in America have the constitutional right to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining to improve their wages and benefits. For far too long, Starbucks and its multi-billionaire owner have acted as though those laws do not apply to them.”

When Schultz sat down for the senate committee hearing on March 29, Sen. Sanders accused him of trying to break the union and of trying to break the spirit of unionized workers:

“Do you understand that in America workers have a fundamental right to join a union and collectively bargain to improve wages, benefits and working conditions? Do you understand that?” Sanders asked.

“I understand and we respect the right of every partner who wears a green apron,” Schultz responded, “whether they choose to join the union or not.”

“Are you aware that NLRB judges have ruled that Starbucks violated federal labor law over 100 times during the past 18 months, far more than any other corporation in America?”

 “Sir,” Schultz replied, “Starbucks Coffee company unequivocally––let me set the tone for this very early on––has not broken the law.” 

Sanders then asked, “Are you aware that on March 1st, 2023, an administrative law judge found Starbucks guilty of ‘egregious and widespread misconduct,’ widespread coercive behavior. And showed ‘a general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights’ in a union organizing campaign that started in Buffalo, NY in 2021. Are you aware of that?”

“I’m aware that those are allegations and Congress has created a process that we are following and we’re confident that those allegations will be proven false.” 

“Mr. Schultz, before answering the following … questions, let me remind you that federal law at 18 U.S. Code Section 1001 prohibits knowingly and willfully making any fraudulent statement.”

“I understand that,” Schultz stated.

Sen. Sanders then went on to ask Schultz if he had ever taken part in attempts to threaten, coerce, discipline, intimidate, or fire workers who have tried to join a Starbucks union. Schultz assured that, while some people may have interpreted some of his actions as being so, he has never done that. “I’ve had conversations that could have been interpreted in a different way than I intended. That’s up to the person who received the information that I spoke to them about,” he said.

Ultimately, when Sanders asked Schultz point blank if the company could “make a promise to this committee that you will exchange proposals with the union so that we can begin to make meaningful progress?”

Schultz would only state that “On a single store basis, we will continue to negotiate in good faith. That’s what we’ll do.”

Starbucks workers and union representatives were also in attendance and gave testimonies at the hearing.

Starbucks corporate has accused the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of colluding with SWU to promote union membership. While the NLRB has accused Starbucks of carrying out an anti-union campaign that has included employee surveillance and firings. 

The same day Schultz testified in the senate, some 52% of Starbucks shareholders approved a proposal to have an outside organization conduct a third-party audit of its labor practices and investigate allegations of any anti-union tactics. A coalition of shareholders, including the New York City Retirement Systems (NYCERS) and other pension fund clients, pushed to ensure that Starbucks make a “commitment to workers’ rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining.”

Also, on the day of Schultz’s senate testimony, two Starbucks workers were fired in Buffalo, NY. Two days later, a Starbucks shift supervisor in Buffalo who had become a prominent union organizer was also fired from her job.

“At Starbucks, it’s time for a change,” Portland, Oregon Starbucks worker Alicia Flores said in an April 3 SWU press statement. “Partners are demanding a voice on the job to improve conditions. Investors are demanding scrutiny of the company’s labor practices. Senators are calling for an end to rampant union-busting. That’s why across the country, we’re calling on the Starbucks board members who lead the direction of this company to turn the page on the union-busting tactics of Howard Schultz, respect partners’ voice through their union and negotiate contracts across the country.”

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