The Mulgrew Tax

Rank and file are already drowning in co-pays. Starting January 2025, if will cost NYC Retirees on Medicare 15 bucks to see a doctor, get a blood test, or whatever. And it only goes up from there.

After having their asses handed to them in court multiple times, UFT Unity has a quandary on its hands. How can they pay back the 600 million a year, forever, they exchanged for the three year 2018 contract? They planned to dump the retirees into an Advantage plan, or make them pay protection money to keep real Medicare. But now they need to get their paws into the pockets of retirees some other way.

Fortunately, UFT Unity’s pride and joy, Michael Mulgrew, loves him some co-pays. Every time the city threatens a premium, he just asks, “Where can I add a co-pay?” You might as well have a premium, in some ways. Except the way Mulgrew does it is more a tax on the sick.

Actually, it’s a concerted effort to discourage you from getting care when you need it. That’s how the city saves money. It’s pretty clear Mulgrew is interested in Eric Adams’ bottom line, and hasn’t got a care in the world about you or your health. That, my friends, is precisely the opposite of what we need in a union leader.

I distinctly recall Mulgrew, getting up in front of some meeting, probably a Retired Teachers Chapter meeting, and declaring that co-pays for retirees on Medicare were supposed to be a temporary thing. Call me cynical, but I didn’t believe him. Like many others, I thought they were added simply to make the Advantage plan he was hawking look better in comparison.

Nonetheless, Mike, since you said it was temporary, feel free to go to the comments section and let us know exactly when the co-pays will cease. (With all due respect, I shall sit while I wait.)

Mulgrew loves to bloviate over how we have premium-free health care. That may or may not last. The fact is, though, with premiums popping up all over the place, and going nowhere but up, Mulgrew has no qualms over posing his tax on those of us who show the poor judgment to actually get sick. (That said, if you’re simply sick of Mulgrew, you won’t need a doctor. You can probably get by with a bucket.)

Mulgrew thinks we are too stupid to notice the fact that, despite there is no premium at the moment, he’s charging us anyway. This is his MO. He gets up, says he opposes Advantage, and does nothing. He gets up, makes a resolution at AFT that changes nothing, and assumes we are all too dim to notice.

Mulgrew and Weingarten both seem to think that, by making a proposal that does nothing whatsoever to help us, we will all stop battling them. They seem to think we will all vote for them as they do nothing and offer us even less. Neither seems to register the fact that we’ve just rejected both of them by an overwhelming margin.

Meanwhile, on this astral plane, the NYC Retirees successfully blocked a copay on GHI Senior Care. This was because it was a violation of contract. So if you’re a retiree on Medicare, you’ve saved a bunch of cash as a result. Please consider donating to support future court cases, as they are certainly coming.

Just the other day, Eric Adams got up in front of God and everybody and told us he really was concerned about us. He cared about our health. Curiously, this didn’t stop him from changing the GHI Senior Care contract. Sure, he’d have preferred to just dump it on us illegally. But he’s mayor, so why not just change the rules? As of January, every time a Medicare retiree sees a doctor, it will cost 15 bucks.

And guess what? If the doctor is in a hospital, it’s 15 for the doctor, and 15 for the hospital. Blood test? Another 15. Physical therapy twice a week? That’s 30. Chemo? 15 bucks each time. You look at Michael Mulgrew funny? Well, do that all you want because it’s free. But I’ve had cancer, I spent months bouncing from doctor to test to doctor to hospital to doctor, and the little fees mount up.

What’s worse is that this is now on retirees. Adams and Mulgrew may not have noticed (or more likely couldn’t care less with their bloated salaries), but retirees are older than the general population, and this means they are more likely to get sick. In fact, they are more likely to get very sick. As a result, their fees are likely to heavily outpace those of rank and file.

Furthermore, as every retiree who spent decades with GHI can attest, co-pays go nowhere but up. I remember paying five bucks with GHI, then 15, then 30, then 50, then 100, and who knows where it will go from there? Mulgrew told the Delegate Assembly he wanted a 400 dollar copay for City MD. (If you’re a retiree who favors City MD, I suggest you visit this year while you still can.)

Equity is a big word these days. When you impose costs upon retirees, it’s not particularly equitable. That’s because pensions vary wildly. I’m okay with mine, for the moment at least, but that could always change. Many, probably most city employees make a whole lot less than teachers. UFT paraprofessionals make quite a bit less than we do. DC37 employees might be working at or near minimum wage. That doesn’t make for a hefty pension.

Michael Mulgrew couldn’t care less about retired paraprofessionals, though it’s his job to do that. He couldn’t care less about DC37 employees. He couldn’t care less about cops or firefighters. He couldn’t care less about me, or about you.

And that, my friends, is why next year, we need to pick up Michael Mulgrew, open the doors at 52 Broadway, and toss him and his 350K a year before expenses butt right out onto the street. And the Unity Gang that enabled all this nonsense? They can go right along with him.

Thanks to Daniel and Norm.