Rockland Retirees Succeed In Keeping Benefits Unchanged

Rockland County Legislature Chairman Toney L. Earl and Deputy Majority Leader Alden H. Wolfe said the Administration did the right thing for county government retirees Tuesday by notifying the state that the county will not be withdrawing from its current insurance set up.

Wolfe said he had intended to introduce a resolution at the full Legislature meeting rescinding the withdrawal because, although it had been one week since the County Executive held a press conference putting the insurance switch on pause, he had made no formal request to rescind the withdrawal. Wolfe said there was now no need for the resolution.

“This is not a political battle between Republicans and Democrats, as we saw by the bipartisan effort in the Legislature to review this process,” Wolfe said. “The winners here are the retirees who worked for years and in many cases, decades, in service to Rockland County residents. They earned their health insurance coverage and under the law, none of us should diminish that benefit.”

The administration wanted to move about 2,600 county government retirees 65 and older into the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan as of April 1. Those who declined to enroll in the new plan would be left to secure health insurance coverage on their own.

Nearly 200 retirees had called, emailed or sent letters to the Legislature voicing their concerns and disapproval of the switch, and many attended and spoke at Legislative meetings.

According to Wolfe, retirees voiced particularly concern about what the potential changes a combined Medicare health insurance plan, referred to as a Medicare Advantage plan, could mean for them. Many said they prefer the current setup: a traditional Medicare plan and a separate supplementary insurance plan.

The County was required to notify the New York State Health Insurance Program, or NYSHIP, which provides insurance through the United Healthcare Empire Plan, that it was withdrawing from the plan by Feb. 1.

The Legislature obtained an extension to Feb. 28.

The Legislature received notice that the state Civil Service Department, which oversees health benefits for current and retired municipal workers, was moving the date to June 1.

Then County Executive Ed Day held a press conference on Feb. 13 where he announced he was pausing any changeover to Aetna “for the foreseeable future.” Day announced a further delay than county lawmakers had already elicited, citing concerns about Aetna based on California's probe into its denial of claims.

Earl and Wolfe said at the time that the decision didn’t go far enough when it came to protecting health insurance coverage for county government retirees, in part because no formal request to rescind the County’s withdrawal from NYSHIP had been made.

County law prohibits any diminishment to retiree health insurance coverage, yet no final draft of the Aetna policy was available. That, they felt, made it impossible to compare the current Empire plan to the proposed new Aetna Medicare Advantage plan.

In a letter dated Feb. 20, County Insurance Department Director Karen Cassa wrote to James DeWan, director of the Employee Benefit Division of the state Civil Rights Department, that, “No further action will be taken to remove retirees from NYSHIP in the foreseeable future. This will serve as formal written notice pursuant to NYSHIP withdrawal requirements…”

“We didn’t have the information necessary to properly review this proposal,” Earl said. “I also believe the County Executive didn’t have the right to move forward without involving the Legislature, which has the authority under the law to approve contracts over $100,000. This proposal represented a $1 million-plus contract and it should have been brought to us for consideration. The process he followed was flawed from the start and I’m sorry our retirees have been through such stress and anxiety wondering what would happen with their health care.”

SEE:

• Re-Evaluating Benefits Change For Rockland Retirees
• Benefits Change for Rockland County Retirees Delayed

Photo: Retirees concerned about their health insurance coverage attend Rockland County Legislature meeting./ Rockland County Legislature