Medicare Advantage for NYC teachers. Mulgrew isn't going rogue. It's AFT President Weingarten.

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January first Illinois teachers enrolled in the state retired healthcare system get moved from several Medicare Advantage programs to Aetna.

I’m currently enrolled in the United Healthcare MA.

On Thursday the TRAIL system, as our retiree state program is called, is holding an informational program on the shift to Aetna MA for Chicago retirees. I’ll be there.

My immediate concern is that I am currently going through drug therapy for my Crohn’s Disease which will continue into 2023. It required pre-approval from United Healthcare, which I got. Will Aetna also give approval for my therapy? What do I do if Aetna doesn’t?

This whole pre-approval bullshit is just one of the problems with Medicare Advantage.

I’m closely following what is happening to New York teachers.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the New York United Federation of Teachers is working hard to move New York retired teachers into a Medicare Advantage program.

He has met fierce resistance from both active and retired New York teachers, as he should.

But Mulgrew isn’t acting rogue.

I go back to the last Democratic Party presidential primary when Mulgrew’s boss, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten came out against Bernie Sander’s call for Medicare for All.

Just at the time when most Americans favored national healthcare, the leadership of the second largest teacher union in the country is promoting greater privatization of health care.

Medicare Advantage programs are run by private for profit insurance companies. The growth of Medicare Advantage threatens the public system of Medicare.

Weingarten opposed Medicare for All by arguing that union members were better off bargaining healthcare at the local level.

Of course, that leaves out the millions of Americans who don’t have work-based health insurance.

In the current battle against Medicare Advantage in New York we can see that Weingarten’s position isn’t just a theoretical or philosophical position.

Mulgrew is following orders and putting it into practice.