NYC Teacher retirees win back their healthcare. Union president Mulgrew forced to retract his secret plan. And there is a union election coming up.
As a teacher retiree I follow pension and healthcare issues pretty closely.
I think I know the Illinois system well although I never thought I would be spending so much of my retirement coordinating my health insurance coverage and medical care as I do.
A seamless national healthcare system for everyone from birth to death would change all that.
But, alas, not yet.
So, this is just to say that I have been following what is going on in New York and the fight by New York’s retired teachers to protect their healthcare coverage.
Retired teachers in both Illinois and New York are covered by Medicare. Additional retiree health care has been covered by a subsidized state plan, not private Medicare Advantage.
Without telling anyone, United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Michael Mulgrew agreed to move his retired members into a private Medicare Advantage plan.
For years New York’s UFT has been run by the Unity Caucus.
It ran it like the old Chicago Democratic Party Machine.
Reform attempts always fell short.
But Mulgrew has been forced to retreat on the issue of retiree healthcare.
And as my friend Jonathan writes, it’s just the latest in a series of defeats and retreats by Mulgrew and the Unity Caucus.
And there’s a election coming up.