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On Memorial Day 2022, Gary Bent’s world shattered. After a long time of service as a professor on the College of Connecticut, Gary discovered that his melanoma had returned, accompanied by a blood clot in his mind. Surgical procedure was his solely possibility. Like so many public retirees throughout the nation, Gary had been compelled off his Medicare and onto a Medicare Benefit plan—a choice that may have devastating penalties.
After being denied by Medicare Benefit two extra occasions, Gary was introduced residence. Inside hours he fell unwell with a bacterial an infection, and weeks later, Gary handed away. A public servant denied healthcare and left to die.
Docs, Congressmembers, State representatives, healthcare advocates, and seniors have been sounding the alarm on Medicare Benefit for years. Regardless of this, Mayor Eric Adams is on the verge of forcing tons of of 1000’s of Metropolis retirees onto this restrictive, and at occasions deadly, privatized medical health insurance plan. Retirees, who’ve been receiving Conventional Medicare since 1967, are susceptible to shedding their promised healthcare by an administration that cares extra about enriching insurance coverage corporations than caring for the retired staff who constructed and supported this metropolis.
Simply final week, Dr. Oz was nominated to move the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers (CMS) and may lead the cost, utilizing the Challenge 2025 guide, to power seniors to vary their healthcare to a system crammed with crimson tape like restrictive networks and prior authorization necessities. New York Metropolis shouldn’t be fast-tracking this key a part of Challenge 2025, which goals to make Medicare Benefit the default healthcare possibility for Individuals at age 65,
successfully privatizing Medicare. We can not enable this plan to undermine Conventional Medicare, a literal lifeline for tons of of 1000’s of seniors in New York Metropolis. For our metropolis’s retirees, who depend on inexpensive, accessible healthcare, this nationwide venture poses a direct menace to their well-being, so it’s much more vital to enshrine these protections into legislation now.
It doesn’t should be this fashion. The New York Metropolis Council has an extended historical past of stepping as much as shield retirees and staff from dangerous insurance policies. Over the a long time, the Council legislated protections to make sure that retirees may depend on strong healthcare advantages. The Metropolis Council has additionally repeatedly stood up towards insurance policies that undermine our values and the well-being of our residents. When Mayor Adams resisted increasing CityFHEPS vouchers to assist tenants, the Council fought again. When he defunded our metropolis businesses with price range cuts, we fought again and
obtained a lot of these cuts restored. And in response to his stance on transparency with the How Many Stops Act, we pushed for larger police accountability.
So why aren’t we preventing again now? If ever there was a time to defend our retirees’ healthcare, it’s right this moment. By passing laws that secures entry to Conventional Medicare, we be certain that present and future NYC retirees received’t lose the liberty to decide on healthcare that meets their wants.
If Democrats are imagined to be the occasion for the working class, on the very least we owe it to our metropolis’s retirees to maintain the guarantees we made and never topic them to the identical tragic final result that Gary’s household needed to endure. These are retirees who devoted their lives to maintaining New York Metropolis operating, from academics and firefighters to transit staff and sanitation employees. They earned their advantages, and they need to not should sacrifice their well being or their financial savings in retirement.
The Metropolis Council should act to guard retirees from being compelled into privatized Medicare Benefit plans. This situation isn’t just about {dollars} and cents; it’s about dignity, equity, and our metropolis’s duty to its staff. Collectively, we will present that New York Metropolis stands with its retirees by passing Intro 1096-2024, preserving their proper to high quality healthcare and honoring the commitments that make our metropolis sturdy.
