NEW YORK CITY, October 12—Hundreds of retired New York City workers rallied outside of city hall today in a continuing struggle to prevent reductions in their health benefits. Retirees have been fighting for over a year against a plan to force them into privatized medical insurance, the Medicare Advantage plan, rather than traditional medicare coverage with city paid secondary insurance. The original plan was for premiums of $191.00 monthly per person to be charged for those who wanted to opt out of the Medicare Advantage plan. This racist plan meant that low income retirees (disproportionately Black and Latin) would be unable to afford to opt out. Angry retirees understood that Medicare Advantage plans rip off the medicare program in order to insure maximum profits. This was found to be the case by the U.S. inspector general (NYT, 10/8). Retirees also feared that needed tests and treatments would be denied or delayed by profit seeking private insurance companies, again found to be the case in a federal audit (NYT, 4/28). Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have pointed out that capitalist medicine is dangerous for us all, be it government or private run systems. In a communist run system, medical care would be determined by need, not cost or profit. In the heat of battle, we need to build the PLP so that the alternative of communist run health care becomes real.
PL'ers involved in this struggle have pointed out how “friends'' in the city government, led by the Democratic Party (first by Mayor De Blasio and now by Mayor Adams), have teamed up with the main city worker union leaders, the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) to put retirees into a Medicare (dis)Advantage plan. As the old saying goes, with friends like these, who needs enemies!
Earlier this year, a court ruling allowed the city’s new Medicare Advantage plan to begin but denied the city the right to charge premiums to those who wanted to stay with traditional Medicare and a city sponsored secondary insurance they now enjoy. That decision is now being appealed by the city and MLC. Meanwhile the city and MLC have hatched a plan to change the local law upon which the court case was decided.
When PL’ers chant “the cops, the courts, the Ku Klux Klan, all are part of the bosses’ plan” we are pointing out how the ruling class uses both state power and their allies to attack the working class. In this struggle, we have seen how the bosses have used their state apparatus and their allies in the unions to attack retirees.
Today's demonstration focused on the plan to change local administrative code 12-126, to undermine the court’s finding earlier this year. We are pointing out to current workers that this change could mean the ending of premium free health coverage for them as well as worsening the health coverage for retirees. Retirees once again are appealing to local politicians in the New York City council to block this change. Relying on the goodness of politicians is a dubious plan at best. It is leading us into the arms of the ruling class. Capitalism rules by many means. Sometimes with an open iron fist. More often by getting workers to follow the leadership of enemies of the working class who lead mass movements like the unions and the Democratic and Republican political parties.
PL’ers stand with our sisters and brothers in fighting back. While doing so, we unmask our class enemies wherever they are and whoever they may be.
