NYC Forcing retired city employees to move from Medicare to Medicare Advantage

[rkthesenior]

Are you aware that the City of NY is forcing its retirees to move from original Medicare, which typically does not require advanced approval for basic or necessary procedures, to a privately managed healh plan, aka Medicare Advantage, where retirees will need to wait for approval for some procedures and where retirees who have doctors that won't accept the Medicare Advantage plan will either have to find other doctors that do, or else pay the doctors up front (if they can afford to), and possibly more than Medicare would otherwise pay, and then have to do paperwork to request reimbursement from the Medicare Advantage plan, and hope someday to actually be reimbursed? Maybe you can look into this and help the retirees. This plan will go live September 1st if not stopped. Thank you.

[rkthesenior]

You might need to "allow ads" in order to view this if you do not have a subscription to the Daily News.

Mayor Adams signs controversial contract that eliminates traditional Medicare for retired NYC workers

Mayor Adams signs controversial contract that eliminates traditional Medicare for retired NYC worker...

[GailL1]

Here is another article on it which also talks about the big move in this direction in both government and private industry plans.

It is being done to save money -  in government, it is saving the taxpayers. In private industry, the company saves.

Something like this was  bound to happen as healthcare cost soar.

There is not a paywall for this NYT article

NYT 03/10/2023 - More Retiree Health Plans Move Away From Traditional Medicare

[FredP379779]

How are the savings achieved?

[rkthesenior]

If someone reading this knows the answer, please post. Thanks.

[GailL1]

Here is a very detailed article from the NYDAILY 

NYDAILY 03/31/2023 - NYC mayor signs contract that eliminates traditional Medicare for retired city ...

[rkthesenior]

Thank you. Unfortunately the article is actually behind a paywall.

[WebWiseWoman]

Hi, @rkthesenior !

Would you be able to provide citations for this? I ask because having worked for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) before retirement, I haven't seen anything about this.

It does seem possibly bordering on illegal, but NY has always led on insurance legislation that later becomes national.

Thank you in advance!

#StaySafe

[DirkB349973]

Here is a March 10 article on a labor website.

"Defying two years of protests and lawsuits by union retirees, New York City’s Municipal Labor Committee voted March 9 to scrap some of the best retiree health care coverage in the country. The change would put 250,000 city retirees into a for-profit Medicare Advantage plan run by Aetna."

https://www.labornotes.org/2023/03/new-york-city-retirees-fight-their-own-unions-stop-catastrophic-h...

[rkthesenior]

Thank you. I thought I'd responded with an article but apparently it never posted. The one you posted is actually better.

[WebWiseWoman]

Thank you, @DirkB349973 ! This is appalling!

AARP needs to get involved because this is not acceptable, ever, imho!

[rkthesenior]

Since AARP offers a Medicare Advantage plan, I'm not confident that AARP will choose to get involved. I am hoping, however, that someone from AARP is actually reading this thread and that AARP will help seniors. This is, after all, its mission - to help make sure seniors are not taken for granted or advantage of. The city should find another way to save money and not put the burden on retirees.

[rkthesenior]

https://community.aarp.org/t5/General-Help/NYC-Forcing-retired-city-employees-to-move-from-Medicare-...