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To the editor:
Marianne Pizzitola, the president of the New York City Organization of Civil Service Retirees, is right that as of Jan. 1st, I can no longer use traditional Medicare. A representative I spoke with after calling Medicare said that while I keep the same Medicare number, Aetna now has control over my Medicare.
For those who read only the print edition, Pizzitola informed us that the group fighting for us retirees legally is TWU100R. I'm sending them a check. Their address is TWU100.ORG at 271 Cadman Plaza (E), P.O. Box 22393, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Pizzitola also informed us that they won a legal battle to get one group switched back to traditional Medicare after they were on Aetna MA for two years. This nonsense began as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. It was then called Medicare Part C, or Medicare+Choice. This became Medicare Advantage in 2003. In other words, a product of two awful presidents.
I wholeheartedly agree with Pizzitola's comments except for one. When she says we need better educated union leaders. I don't think education is the problem. Character is.
People who are moral and logical wouldn't try to force retirees into a health care plan we don't want. I've known idiots with master degrees or high IQs and I know wise people who only have high school diplomas. I think that people familiar with his work would recognize the genius of the late, great high school dropout, Curtis Mayfield.
Richard Warren
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namrogm
Mayfield's paralyzing accident with that lighting equipment in Brooklyn in 1990 didn't stop him, but it probably deprived us of his genius for another 20 years after his death in 1999. Yes, character is far more important than education if we have to choose just one.
Wednesday, January 17 Report this
harryw
Well said! And we will not take Medicare Disadvantage lying down.
As Curtis sang -
“Take nothing less
Than the supreme best
Do not obey rumors people say
'Cause you can pass the test
Just move on up
To a greater day
With just a little faith, if you put your mind to it
You can surely do it.”
Thursday, January 18 Report this
Kate8475
Very true. The gruesome threesome union "leaders" have no character whatsoever.
Tuesday, January 23 Report this