NYC won't force 250K retirees off their current Medicare plan, despite court ruling

Marianne Pizzitola
Jul 4
3 min read

Published Jun 20, 2025

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Mayor Eric Adams said Friday he is scrapping a private Medicare plan he has tried to push on retired city workers since he took office nearly four years ago, despite the state’s highest court clearing the way for the plan to move forward.

“I am grateful to the Court of Appeals for recognizing, earlier this week, that the city has a legal right to offer alternative health care coverage plans to retirees and for acknowledging that we must have flexibility to adapt our policies based on changing times,” Adams said in a statement.

“This is an important precedent that will allow the city to modify plans in response to evolving conditions,” he added.

But Adams is nonetheless abandoning the unpopular Medicare Advantage plan, which would cover some 250,000 older adults. The move, which comes in the midst of his reelection campaign, represents a major reversal. Since taking office, Adams has defended the Medicare Advantage switch against claims that it would diminish retirees’ coverage by narrowing the network of providers and requiring more prior approvals for care.

The mayor said he has been swayed by the concerns retirees have expressed at recent “older adult town halls” about the proposed switch from traditional Medicare, with additional benefits covered by the city, to a private Medicare Advantage plan operated by Aetna.

“Your health care will be my health care when I retire,” Adams said at one such town hall in January. “I’m a civil servant.”

The Medicare Advantage plan was conceived of under the previous administration as a way to save the city $600 million annually, which some municipal union leaders have said is needed to cover the rising cost of coverage for current city employees.

Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for City Hall, said that as the proposed Medicare Advantage plan was amended over the years to respond to retirees’ concerns, the projected savings shrank — which is part of why Adams is looking for other solutions.

“We have informed union leadership that we are pursuing other avenues for improving health care for city workers that will provide even better outcomes, and we look forward to continuing to work with our partners on the best path forward,” Adams said Friday.

Earlier this month, City Hall announced it is working with EmblemHealth and United Healthcare to create a new health plan for active city employees and their dependents that the city says will save $1 billion per year.

Marianne Pizzitola, president of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, which was founded to oppose the Medicare Advantage plan, was in disbelief after hearing about the mayor’s change of heart Friday.

“I truly do hope this is true,” the former FDNY employee said. “The mayor always said he would land this plane.”

But she said she still wants city lawmakers to pass legislation to make it harder to change retiree health coverage in the future.

“No retiree should have to go through this ever again,” Pizzitola added.