Update on Medicare Disadvantage Program Threatening 250,000 NYC Retirees from City Employment

          Across the country a wildfire called Medicare Advantage, is destroying traditional Medicare. Private insurance companies are gobbling up the popular traditional Medicare and turning it into a profit center. More than 40% of Medicare has been taken over by these plans. The price for those choosing these so-called Advantage" programs is submitting procedures and treatments to "prior approval" which too frequently ends in denial of care. In September we covered the begining resistance of NYC city retirees to the City's attempt to downgrade their health insurance coverage with one of these plans. This is just one attempt by health insurance profiteers to undo Medicare and reap superprofits. Long-time LGBTQ and labor activist Julie Schwartzberg of Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee gives us the latest developments in the local NY City campaign against a for-profit health insurance plan that would eliminate standard Medicare benefits for NYC government retirees .