MULGREW-MURPHY-SORKIN EMAIL TO RETIREES ON POSSIBLE MEDICARE PRIVATIZATION

The UFT is feeling the pressure from retirees on possible changes to retiree healthcare that the UFT is negotiating as part of the Municipal Labor Committee with the city. Michael Mulgrew will do a town hall for retirees on Tuesday. I wonder if the UFT will try to screen out tough questions as they do with active members at town hall/DAs.

The email:

Retired Teachers Chapter

Dear James, As we are sure many of you are aware, there are ongoing negotiations taking place related to retiree healthcare. We are writing to provide some clarity: These negotiations do not require us to do anything we don’t want to do, and no decisions have been made.    We are aggressively using our collective power as part of the efforts of the Municipal Labor Committee to ensure that we continue to provide you with the best and most cost-effective healthcare coverage possible. Because of rising costs in the healthcare industry and the industry’s continued attempts to take advantage of our hard-working members, we have had to become more aggressive or risk losing the valuable benefits we have fought so hard for. If left unchecked, these costs could eventually come out of your pension payment.   We are fighting to create a plan that replicates the network size and structure of the current 250,000-member strong GHI SeniorCare plan — without any reduction in benefit — that would help you to schedule doctor appointments and facilitate your health care needs through an increasing number of doctors in an extensive national network. Our bottom line is to make certain that the future burden for any rising costs does not fall on our members and their families.   The UFT’s position is that any new healthcare plan must provide our members with the same or improved benefit structure. Members must have access to the same doctors in addition to having the choice of any Medicare-eligible providers.    Hospitals and drug companies are constantly making reasonably priced healthcare benefits increasingly difficult to access. Maintaining these benefits, along with other affordable healthcare measures, has been a long-term struggle, but we have been successful at weathering the storm so far by working smarter and harder to stay ahead of the game. As healthcare costs continue to rise, the conflict will only intensify, so our careful and strategic work continues.   Our vigorous bargaining is going on for our in-service members as well. Just last week, the UFT joined with other unions in the Municipal Labor Committee to publish a full-page ad in the New York Times that demanded an end to price-gouging by New York-Presbyterian Hospital, which is one of the city’s major healthcare providers. We intend to be just as forceful with other hospitals and with the major health insurers who play a key part in the overall healthcare system.   Join us on Tuesday, May 4, by phone for a retiree-only UFT town hall meeting to learn more. You will receive an email invitation to register for the meeting later this week.    We will keep you updated throughout this process. Thank you for your continued membership, and we are honored to serve you.    Sincerely,   Michael Mulgrew, UFT President Tom Murphy, RTC Chair Geof Sorkin, UFT Welfare Fund Executive Director