Communication

As printed in the May 2005 Communicator

Retirees’ health benefits top priority
Greetings to all PEF Retirees and to those of you who, as active PEF members, are still working “to make New York work.”

As your newly elected president of the PEF Retirees, I am appreciative of the unanimous support I received from the PEF Retiree Executive Board at its May meeting, when David Grier stepped down from this leadership position. 

Working with 1st Vice President Cal Thayer, 2nd Vice President Mary Reid, Secretary Eileen Spence and the entire remaining retiree chapter presidents, I am optimistic we will succeed. I ask all retirees to support the PEF retirees in your area. You make our work easier with your participation and support. 

The PEF Retirees Executive Board continues to dedicate itself to strengthening our organization to maximize our effectiveness in representing you. And, of course, every success we achieve ultimately will benefit everyone in PEF.

On the federal level, we have joined forces with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans. We are vitally concerned about the future of Social Security and Medicare.

Our energy in the state government arena has been devoted to preserving and enhancing our pension and health insurance benefits. While all these issues are tremendously important, I’d like to focus, for now, on our health insurance benefits.

Today, we face ominous threats to reduce those benefits. Groups such as the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) argue that our medical benefits far exceed those in the private sector and should be curtailed. 

CBC contends we, as public-sector employees and retirees, should pay 50 percent of our health insurance premiums and the state should stop reimbursing its retirees for Medicare Part B coverage, which currently costs $78.20 per month.

The PEF Retiree Executive Board takes these proposals as a serious challenge to our retirement security. 

Our retiree health insurance benefits are not protected by the New York State constitution, state Civil Service Law or the collective-bargaining process. 

Our health insurance benefits are regulated by the state Department of Civil Service and, theoretically, it could change our benefit levels. 

We are working with PEF to permanently protect our health insurance benefits. State Sen. Hugh Farley and Assembly Member Peter Abbate Jr. have introduced bills to prohibit the state and other public employers from reducing their premium contributions or the level of their retirees’ benefits. 

Marge Devoe, president of the Albany Chapter of PEF Retirees and our representative to the PEF Political Action Committee, reports some optimism for the success of this legislation. 

You can reach PEF Retirees President Stephen Muscarella at smuscarella@pef.org.

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