Health care FAQ
The UFT announced on June 23 that it is withdrawing its support for health care negotiations with the city. The following FAQ answers common questions from UFT members.
What is the impact of the recent announcement on my health care coverage as an in-service DOE employee?
Nothing is changing with your health care coverage at this time.
In early 2023, when deciding whether or not to renew the current in-service GHI CBP health care plan, the city and the Municipal Labor Committee started a negotiated acquisition process. The goal was to use this process to find an insurance company that would be the best partner to enable us to lock in our premium-free health care with no diminishment of benefits. A year later, they had still not settled on a health care insurer with whom to partner.
The city has delayed these negotiations for months. This administration has proven to be more interested in cutting their costs than working in good faith with us to preserve high-quality, premium-free health care for city employees.
The UFT has withdrawn its support for these negotiations because we no longer believe that it is in the interest of our members to be part of that process.
Why did the city and the MLC start looking for a new health care plan in the first place?
Over the past 20 years, health care costs across the nation have increased dramatically and coverage has become drastically more expensive. Those rising costs have made it difficult to preserve premium-free health care for our members. New York City is one of the last cities to provide premium-free health care for its municipal employees, and the UFT is the last of the affiliates of the American Federation of Teachers to preserve premium-free coverage for members.
The idea behind using a negotiated acquisition process was to leverage the large buying power of the New York City workforce to secure a new plan that could save money while providing benefits as good or better than our current health care plan.
This union has emphatically stated to the city that we will not agree to anything that diminishes benefits and causes premiums.
What does this change in the UFT’s position mean for the future of our health care?
The UFT, as part of the MLC, will continue to do everything we can to preserve and protect high-quality, premium-free health care for all New York City municipal workers and retirees. But we cannot count on the city to be a willing partner in this effort.
We will push the MLC to find a new strategy going forward.
What about the New York Health Act and health care for all?
The UFT believes in health care for all. Everyone should have the right to premium-free health care. But we think it is best achieved at the national level. We are working closely with the AFT to push for greater access to health care for all.
As the bill is currently written, the New York Health Act (NYHA) has many points of concern for us. Our primary responsibility is to ensure our members have the high-quality health care they deserve.
Some of our main concerns with the NYHA are:
- The projected costs needed to create a New York State health care system for all are very high and much of the money will be sourced from tax increases. The impact of the cost burden on New Yorkers has not been properly assessed in the plan.
- The UFT has many members who live out of state, and the plan does not properly say when or how any out-of-state employees or retirees will be covered. We have no way of knowing what that coverage or the out-of-state network would look like for those members.
- The NYHA will be controlled by a panel of 31 appointed members. Only three of those seats will provide union voice in decision making. We are concerned that unions will not have a say in the type of coverage or benefits that city employees will get.
There are many changes needed to the plan envisioned in the New York Health Act, and as it stands now, there are too many unanswered questions for the UFT to feel confident in supporting this legislation. We will continue to lobby for national change and push for local laws to provide transparency and changes in the health care industry.
What is happening with New York City retirees and Medicare Advantage?
The UFT has withdrawn its support for the Medicare Advantage plan.