8 Comments

I can’t believe this article states Trump wants to change up SS, Medicare & Medicaid. WTF are Mulgrew & Adams doing. It’s the pot calling the kettle black. We need to remove MULGREW & ADAMS.

NYC NEEDS HEALING NOT THEIR RHETORIC. They are all in for THEMSELVES… ADAMS & his gang of thieves. Mulgrew is a SELLOUT.

VOTE both OUT!!!

Expand full comment

The DA also passed resolutions opposing privatized Medicare Advantage plans.

Expand full comment

I wasn't aware of that, but it speaks volumes about King Michael.

Expand full comment

Mr Goldstein when will you repost you blog post pledging support for Medicare advantage?

Expand full comment

🤮

Expand full comment

I was going to ignore this sarcastic little question, but I'll give you a serious answer. I have never written a post explicitly supporting Medicare Advantage. For a while, for us in particular, I was not upset by the upcoming changes. (That was before I'd spoken with a whole lot of Medicare recipients.) Here's why:

When I had cancer 17 years ago, non-profit Emblem/ GHI was pretty good to me. For a while, the notion of being in a program Emblem controlled did not seem so bad to me. I felt, if I had a health crisis, Emblem would treat me as well as it had before. I'm pretty sure I wrote about that.

In time, thought, as Emblem dropped out, as doctors contradicted Mulgrew's claim they would all accept it, as I learned about Aetna and its history, and about Advantage in general, I changed my position. I was particularly horrified when Mulgrew sent us an email suggesting if we did not sell out the retirees, we'd have to pay 1500 a year. Union does not pit one faction against another. Link is below:

http://nyceducator.blogspot.com/2022/10/uft-if-we-dont-surrender-we-will-lose.html

I write this from my school teacher cafe. It was right here, two years ago, after I publicly opposed the plan on my old blog. UFT called me into an online meeting. Right here I sat while Mike Sill and three or four others tried to persuade me they were doing the right thing. They were very confident in their ability to change my mind, so confident that they arrived with several people I liked, but alas, no argument whatsoever.

Sill told me I had written about this plan before, and therefore knew about it. Jonathan Halabi located where I had written it up in the minutes. Mulgrew had said something about preserving premium-free health care. He did not mention his agreement to save the city 600 million dollars a year in perpetuity. He did not mention placing people into Medicare Advantage. He did not mention cutting 10% for Adams to find another program. I had heard Mulgrew had done something, but not THIS. I wrote about this meeting.

http://nyceducator.blogspot.com/2022/11/i-meet-with-uft-to-discuss-healthcare.html

Sill and his friends had little or no argument, but somehow believed they'd change my mind. That's the kind of hubris that has led our union to where it is today.

Since then, I've been one of the most vocal opponents of this scheme. Thousands read what I write, and I wrote about it in the Daily News at least twice. I don't know how many times I've donated to NYC Retirees, and I'll do so again and again.

What have YOU done to fight this, Rex?

Expand full comment

How come you didn’t share the post in which you wrote how much you supported Medicare Advantage? So you only became against MA due to the all the other stuff. But before all that stuff came out others were against MA because they were against MA. If you were still on exec board you wouldn’t be like this.

Expand full comment

First, you overestimate your mind-reading abilities. Don't give up your day job. Second,I have neither time nor patience for people who respond to things they have not bothered to read. You have a nice day, now.

Expand full comment