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Unions fight state effort to make workers help pay for
retirees’ Medicare premiums
By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF and other state-employees unions are refusing to take no for an answer in
their efforts to block a state move to shift part of its Medicare costs to state
employees and retirees.
When the unions found out what the state was up to, they went to court to block
the maneuver.
Up until now, the state has used its own money to reimburse the retirees for 100
percent of their Medicare Part B premiums. The NYS Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP)
requires retired public employees to enroll in Medicare at 65.
Medicare is a federal four-part health insurance program for seniors. Part B
covers doctors, laboratory, and other medical services not covered by the
hospital insurance under Part A.
Now, the state claims it doesn’t have to bear the entire burden of reimbursing
the Part B premiums for retirees and Medicare-eligible employees. Instead, the
state has added part of that reimbursement cost to the health insurance premiums
charged to state employees and retirees enrolled in NYSHIP.
“For decades the state has recognized its obligation under the law to pay 100
percent of the Medicare Part B reimbursements, but now it is trying to weasel
out of it and shift part of that cost to its employees and retirees,” said PEF
President Roger Benson. “It’s an attempt to drive a wedge between the unions and
their retirees.”
On March 24, PEF associate counsel Harold Eisenstein and lawyers for the other
unions told state Supreme Court Justice William E. McCarthy in Albany they
believe the state is violating state Civil Service Law.
Just a week later, McCarthy ruled against the unions. Citing a decision in an
earlier case, he said the state was within its rights to make employees help pay
for retirees’ Medicare coverage.
But the courts haven’t heard the last of this issue. PEF General Counsel William
Seamon said he expects his office to appeal to the state Appellate Division.
Meanwhile, the raid has spurred a new level of solidarity among the
public-employee unions, according to Bob Carrothers, PEF’s director of contract
administration.
“The level of cooperation among the unions and retirees on this issue is
something we’ve never seen,” Carrothers said. “And since we’re all heading into
a new round of contract negotiations with the state in less than a year, the
timing is great.“
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The Communicator May 2007
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