Labor for Traditional Medicare
Dear Fellow Labor Leader,
We are an Ad Hoc group of trade unionists who support the public sector retirees fighting to preserve their traditional Medicare benefits. We believe the fight being waged by retirees is in the best tradition of organized labor and want to declare our support publicly. We invite you to join us. Our goal is to gather hundreds of signatures from union activists in the New York Metropolitan area and make our support known in a major publication with wide circulation. We are sending you a copy of the proposed ad with a request that you agree to sign on in support of public sector retirees’ fight to preserve their health benefits. Please read the ad and lend your name and support.
PROPOSED AD
Retirees Like All of Us Deserve Traditional Medicare
The undersigned current and retired union stewards, delegates, elected officers and staff believe comprehensive and affordable health care is a necessity of life and a right we should all have. The fight for health care has been central to our union movement. We also believe that it is only with union solidarity that our democratic society will remain functioning and strong.
We are opposed to the replacement of traditional Medicare, a public program fought for and supported by a majority of retired Americans, with a Medicare Advantage system run by a private insurance company that prioritizes profits over health care. We believe Medicare must be protected, strengthened and expanded, not privatized.
Mayor Eric Adams, the New York City Office of Labor Relations and certain union leaders within the Municipal Labor Committee are on the wrong side of history in this dispute. Instead of advocating for a more vital public health-care system via traditional Medicare, the city is pushing a privatized program that has proven to delay and deny care when it really counts. Health insurance programs, like Aetna’s, are also raiding the Medicare trust fund for private gain and costing more than traditional Medicare.
We call on Mayor Adams and the city administration to restore retirees’ traditional Medicare benefits and cease their attacks on those of us who have given the better part of our lives to service our fellow citizens of New York.
I agree to list my name on the ad.
Name: ___________________________________
Union affiliation: __________________________
Union position: ____________________________
Email address: _____________________________
Please return the completed form to rmarkey527@aol.com
Thank you, Labor for Traditional Medicare