We Have the Best Welfare Fund in the Country

So says Michael Mulgrew (Watch that nose.)

I was struck by several remarks made by UFT President Michael Mulgrew at last night’s Delegate Assembly. He’d said he’d have a major announcement on health care, but simply reiterated that there were two finalists—Emblem/United and Aetna. (Mulgrew just can’t wait to dump Aetna on retirees, so I suspect he’ll lean toward them regardless.)

That said, this is very disturbing—As Daniel Alicea pointed out on Twitter, there’s a slide from the PowerPoint they used last night that speaks to “real managed care”. Mulgrew also said that members would need to declare a primary doctor. This suggests the new plan may be more of an HMO than a PPO. If that’s the case, you will have far less choice among providers (despite Mulgrew’s happy talk about paying 10% less for something “as good or better”).

The PowerPoint also paid valuable lip service to improved mental health care, a recent focus of state Attorney General Leticia James. I know many members with inadequate mental health care, and others that regularly pay hundreds out of pocket for services they really need. MAP is thoughtful, but far from a whole solution to needy members I know well.

Today I’m going to focus on the UFT Welfare Fund. I have heard various UFT Unity members say we have the best in the city. My experiences, which I’ll share shortly, suggest that if that’s the case, the others must be substandard beyond belief. The NYC Retirees suggest that a good portion of the money Mulgrew pissed away could be saved by consolidating the city welfare funds. It is my belief that Mulgrew opposes this because it would leave him with fewer patronage gigs to dole out to his loyal BFFs. (In other words, you are not his priority.)

I’ve had three major issues with the Welfare Fund, and each time they failed me absolutely. The first was when my daughter needed braces. I went to a participating provider who said she needed to wear something called a night brace, every night for two years. It was a little wire thing that tortured my daughter. The dentist charged me a few hundred bucks for it, as I recall. He said she would lose several teeth if we didn’t do this.

A friend advised me he had taken his daughter to the same provider, and went for a second opinion. I went to the same one he had, and was told this was an archaic practice for which there was no need. I pulled my daughter from orthodontist A and opted for orthodontist B.

Orthodontist A then charged me for the entire braces process, thousands of dollars, as though he had gone through the entire brace process with my daughter. I was upset. When I called the Welfare Fund, they said sorry, but you’ve exhausted your lifetime benefit. They stood up for the quack dentist. I paid the other fully out of pocket.

It was worth it. My daughter’s braces worked well, she was no longer tortured, and she lost no teeth. Still, I was upset by the Welfare Funds abject failure to support me. It felt like they were working for the provider.

A little over 15 years ago, I developed an oral cancer. It was no fun at all, and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. I was treated with radiation, and developed a mouth that felt drier than the Gobe Desert. My radiation oncologist provided me with some samples of artificial saliva, which relieved my mouth somewhat. When I tried to fill his prescription, I was told it wasn’t covered, and would cost me thousands of dollars. I was in no shape to protest, and did without. (Thanks, Welfare Fund.)

In any case, I’ve had dental issues. They’re inevitable when you get your mouth radiated. I had a periodontist I saw regularly, but COVID sent him to an early retirement. I found a local participating periodontist, and decided I’d give him a try.

The peridontist recommended some sort of deep cleaning, or scaling or something. The price, according to the dental website, was 70 bucks per quadrant, or quarter of your mouth. The periodontist, though, added 160 per quadrant for special supplies or medications. It turned out, as I had half my mouth done, that the doctor charged me $320 for an oral rinse. When I found that out, I said if I’d wanted an oral rinse, I’d have gone to the pharmacy and bought a ten-dollar bottle of Listerine.

Also, the procedure was done by the hygeinist, not the doctor. I could not distinguish it from dental cleanings I’d had in the past.

When I complained about the inflated charge, the woman who took my credit card said I was free to go elsewhere. I thought that was very sporting of her, and of course I was going to do just that. However, I also called Cigna. The rep at Cigna said that’s absolutely outrageous. I’d be mad too, he said. However, I had called the wrong number. There was some special number to call for UFT, and he gave it to me.

I called, and a woman let me know that she would call the periodontist. They take our complaints seriously, she assured me. Providers get scared when we call them, she said. This notwithstanding, they were not sufficiently scared to refund my money. I called Visa. Visa decided to charge me back the $320. I rate Visa highly effective in this case. Welfare Fund? I rate them useless.

I found another periodontist, non-participating, that charged a higher price up front but had no hidden extras. I paid this periodontist to do the other half of my mouth. And the periodontist, in fact, did it herself. Not only that, but it seemed a different procedure, as opposed to the talked up cleaning I’d received at the first place.

When I went to pay the office manager, I learned that the first periodontist, I guess to recoup his losses, had charged me for three quadrants rather than two. The Welfare Fund had paid him out. I paid more than I should have that day. I could’ve contacted the Welfare Fund again, but experience told me it was a waste of time.

If our Welfare Fund is the best in the country, our national welfare is in dire peril.